Frontlines
by Panhead13
Summary: Danny Fenton was just an average kid at an average school, with a not-so-average family. But when the newly elected mayor arrests his parents for no reason, this average 14-year-old will have to take action and fight back, like the hero he was destined to become. Contains character death...and some angst. AU.
1. Prologue: The Invention

**After much plotting and writing, I'm finally bringing to you the (somewhat) anticipated intro to Frontlines! And soon in coming will be the first chapter! AMAZING! So, instead of me spoiling the entire story for you in my excitement, how about you stop reading this right now and read the story? Go ahead! YOU MUST. O_O**

**Frontlines: Prologue- The Invention**

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He was more than nervous when his parents called him and his older sister down for a family meeting. He had assumed it was probably about some ghost-related invention, but he _certainly_ wasn't expecting something as crazy as a _ghost portal._ Then again, his parents were Jack and Maddie Fenton - the two craziest individuals in Amity Park.

Apparently, the portal was supposed to allow passage of humans to the "ghost zone" and vice-versa. Of course, Jack and Maddie weren't thinking about the "vice-versa" part. And while young Danny Fenton knew that could cause trouble for them later on, he truly didn't think the ghost portal would work. None of his parents' _other_ inventions ever worked, so why should he get worried about this one?

Danny was sitting in his room, trying to forget about the portal through the convenient distraction of a computer game. He was doing well at the moment, all thoughts of the invention pushed to the back of his mind. After all, he knew better than to flip out over some "ghost portal"...right?

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**I was testing to see if those line-break things would work on this one. XD I hope they do...But they might not have.**

**Anyways, if you've forgotten the summary, this ISN'T your typical "before Danny gets his powers" story. ****Frontlines**** is the first in a trilogy. I've guestimated that this story will have at most ten chapters, and if more, it will only be a few. I'm warning you right now of character death and blood and violence...and angst... but no swearing, so you're good there. ^.^**

**The first chapter is coming soon! Reviews please! However, the "update soon" strategy will make me lose interest. So NO "update soon"s. XD I lack the ability to update soon!**


	2. Chapter 1: The Root

**Chapter one! So I had several reviews and followers after just the prologue, which I'm very grateful for. X3 If you watch my DeviantART account (PoisonIVy10) Then you probably already know what's gonna happen after this chapter is over. If not, you're gonna be really surprised. ;)**

**As I've already stated in the previous chapter, this isn't your typical pre-series story...and I failed to mention this was an AU story. If you don't like AU, you may want to stick around for it anyway. XD**

**Review, please! :D Remember, no "update soon" reviews!**

**EDIT: I repaired my spelling errors. XD**

**Frontlines: Chapter 1- The Root**

_**THREE WEEKS LATER**_

"Wake up, Danny! We've got a big day today!"

Danny cringed at his mother's words. With a single blast of his blowtorch, Jack had completed the "ghost portal" that previous night. It basically looked like a giant, technologically advanced hole in the wall. Danny didn't see what all the excitement was about, and he was honestly getting sick of it. Well, despite his disinterest, he had to get up and go to school, anyway.

The teen dragged himself out of bed and hurried to get himself dressed and ready to leave. He grabbed his stuff and a quick breakfast before nearly sprinting out the door in a desperate attempt to get out of that house without hearing one more word about the ghost portal.

After he had run a good one and a half mile away from FentonWorks, Danny stopped. He inhaled and exhaled, trying to catch his breath. Had he been more athletic, he might have sprinted all the way to his school, Casper High. "I think that's..." He paused to take a breath of air, "...enough distance for now." Danny held his chest and leaned against the building next to him, panting.

After about fifteen seconds, he was greeted by his best friends, Sam Manson and Tucker Foley. Danny gave them a tired smile and panted out a "hey".

Sam noticed how breathless Danny was. "Whoah, you look exhausted," she remarked.

Tucker backed her up. "Yeah, you look like you've just-"

"Run about one and a half miles at top speed from my house up to a few feet ago?" Danny finished.

Tucker blinked. "Well, I was _gonna_ say you look like you've just run a marathon, but that works, too...if not better."

"Yeah, much better," Sam added. "You two are _so_ out of shape."

"A cylinder is a shape," Tucker stated, smiling jokingly.

"That's not what I mean and you know it, Tucker," Sam retorted, crossing her arms. She then addressed Danny. "So, why _were_ you running that quickly away from your house?"

The teen rolled his sky-blue eyes. "My parents finished their ghost portal last night. I ran so I wouldn't have to hear about it..." His eye twitched; "...For the fifteen. Hundredth. Time."

"Yowch," Tucker interjected. "Is it all they ever talk about?"

"You bet," Danny muttered. "It's like they've lost the ability to focus on anything else but that _machine._"

"It can't be _that_ bad, can it?" Sam asked.

"Yes, it can," Danny retorted.

"Oh, instead of just brushing me off," Sam continued, "take into consideration that _I'm_ the one with the dark outlook on life."

Danny raised his eyebrows. "Yeah? Well in that case, be glad your parents aren't obsessed with ghosts."

"My parents are worse," Sam said. "_You_ don't have to live with parents who are obsessed with changing you into something you're not!"

"Then I _guess_ my situation is better," Danny gave in, still not fully convinced. "I still don't like it."

Tucker placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Nobody would like it, man. I mean, _you_ don't like it. Your _sister_ doesn't like it. So why would anyone else?"

"If they were a moron," Danny said, beginning to lighten up.

"Like Dash?" Sam muttered.

Danny smirked. "Yes, like Dash." The three teens laughed. They would often jeer at the school bully when he wasn't around. It really proved to be a great motivator for them throughout the day. Then, Danny looked solemn. "Sometimes...I just wish my parents would disappear for just a day, or a week or something," he said. He shoved his hands into his pants pockets.

"Don't we all," Sam agreed. "_And_ that they would come back changed for the good."

"If only wishes came true," Danny mused.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, mischief lit Sam's amethyst eyes. "Race you two to school," she challenged. The girl darted off ahead of her two male friends.

"Sam, wait up!" Danny cried, hurrying to catch up with her.

Tucker stood there, clueless, for about five seconds before suddenly realizing he had been left behind. "Hey! Guys, wait for me!" he shouted, running after his friends.

. . . . . . . 

It was during second period (Danny's English class) that a voice called over the loudspeakers asking all students to leave their classes and report to the auditorium. The students were more than happy to leave, of course, and Mr. Lancer was having a hard time keeping his class quiet and orderly.

Danny shared a nervous glance with his friend Sam. He was desperately hoping his parents hadn't decided to announce the creation of their ghost portal to the entire school. But poor Danny had better luck _not_ hoping for anything, for the first two people he saw were his very own insane parents.

"Oh, crud," the teen muttered under his breath. He sat down in a chair located somewhere in the back. He facepalmed, blushing with embarrassment. "Why, why, _why?_" he continued, shaking his head. His friends sat down next to him; Tucker sat to his left, and Sam to his right.

Tucker patted Danny on the back with a half-joking smile on his face. "That's it, man. Sink so low that they don't notice you." But Danny didn't hear his friend's remark. All he heard were the nasty comments aimed at his parents.

"Who are these two people?"

"I dunno, but the fat guy looks like a moron."

"Shh! They're about to speak!"

_Aw, man,_ Danny thought. He sank down even lower in his seat (if that was at all possible).

"Hello, kids of Amity Park!" Jack's voice boomed through the auditorium. "Have we got news for you!"

Danny's face turned even redder. Sweat poured down his face. He could hear his heart beating in his ears and feel it thumping in his chest.

Maddie took the microphone from her husband. "For those of you who don't know, we're Danny Fenton's parents! I'm Maddie and this is Jack." The woman suddenly (and impossibly) caught sight of her son. "Hi, sweetie!" she called. Danny could've died. Every eye in the auditorium turned to him.

"Hide me," he whispered hoarsely to Sam. Sam shoved her spider-shaped backpack in his lap, which Danny gratefully took and buried his face in. He heard cackles of laughter (obviously aimed at him) scattered around the room.

Jack took the microphone back. "Now, what we've _really_ come to talk about is our latest invention! It's a ghost portal! You know, a portal...for ghosts."

Groans echoed throughout the room. "I got out of class to listen to some fat guy talk about _ghosts?_" one tall, lanky kid muttered, playing with his ginger hair.

"It's Fenton's dad," Dash Baxter remarked. "Did you expect him to be uber cool, Carrots?"

Danny sighed and sank down onto his back, ignoring his parents' entire explanation of the ghost portal. For once, he _longed_ to sit through a lecture in English class. He felt _that_ terrible.

A new voice cut into Jack's talking, which Danny recognized to be Principal Ishiyama's. "Yes, that's very nice, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton," The woman said, directing the two offstage. Danny breathed a sigh of relief.

Before getting shoved backstage, Jack turned around and spoke to his nonchalant teenaged audience once more. "Remember: Giant neon sign!" The large man disappeared backstage. Danny sat up and handed Sam her backpack back with a relieved sigh.

"Very nice indeed," an adult male voice declared from the front row. It was a semi-deep voice with a slight accent of some sort to it. A tall, middle-aged man rose from his seat, clapping his hands in a half-sarcastic manner. The man didn't have the most attractive physical appearance, though his sharp black suit and red tie told Danny that this man meant business. He stepped up onto the stage, a half-pleasant smile on his face. Danny wasn't sure what the other half was, but it made him feel slightly uncomfortable. Perhaps it was only the man's occupation as a politician.

"Good morning, Casper High students," the man greeted. "As you know, I've been recently appointed to serve as your new mayor. You are aware of the new laws, are you not?" The students were somehow mesmerized by this man, their new mayor. They all shook their heads, as did Danny. "Well, all I ask of you is that you cooperate with me, don't commit anything against me or my governing strategies, and that you all stay in school. Simple, correct?"

"Seems easy enough," Danny said, turning to look at his friends and clapping.

"I guess so," Sam agreed, also clapping.

"Thank you so much for your cooperation," the mayor said, giving a little bow to his audience. He then stepped down from the stage and returned to his seat.

Principal Ishiyama stepped back onstage with a legitimate smile on her face. "Thank you, Mr, Mayor," she said, halting the applause. "Before you all go back to your classes, there are a few things I'd like to announce..." The teens all groaned and waited for their director to tell them they could go back to class.

. . . . . . 

Danny arrived home from a seemingly extra long day at school. He was about to open the door, but paused as soon as his hand was a half-inch away from the doorknob. He let his hand fall to his side, wondering if he should hang out with his friends a little longer or stay home. Of course, he could always avoid his parents' activation of the ghost portal by claiming he had a _ton _of homework. Well...actually, he _did_ have a lot of homework, just not as much as his parents would think. Therefore, it was not a lie, but a valid excuse.

Happy with his decision, Danny confidently opened the front door. Upon taking a step inside, the teenager slammed into something tall, thick, and...orange? A dazed Danny looked up from the ground to see his father looking down on him with his usual exaggerated grin.

"Danny! You're just in time!" Jack exclaimed, helping his son up with a jerk. It wasn't a rough pull, but it wasn't all that gentle, either.

Danny stumbled about before regaining his footing. "I...ah, actually, Dad, I have this _huge_ load of homework to do, so I'm not gonna be able to see you activate the ghost whatsit. Bye!" Without another bit of hesitation, Danny shot past his dad and ran up the stairs.

Jack was crestfallen. "We've been working on this for weeks," he said to himself. "Why doesn't Danny want to see what our efforts have created? Well, maybe Jazz will join us."

As if on cue, Jazz called down from her room. "Dad, I've got a lot of studying to do. I can't watch you guys turn on that ghost portal. Even if I wanted to, which I don't, I can't."

Jack stood for a second, astonished. "Well, it looks like Maddie and I have the privilege of witnessing history all to ourselves," he said aloud.

"Not if I can help it," Maddie announced, storming into the den area.

Meanwhile, Danny flopped down onto his bed, sighing with relief. He had managed to avoid the ghost portal for once in that entire three weeks. He smiled with this realization. For once in his life, he had easily avoided his parents' ghostly fantasies. The teen shut his eyes and rested for a few seconds, then sat up. He took a look at his clock, which read 5:26PM. It was almost evening.

Danny stood up and walked over to his window. The sky seemed darker than what it had been just a few minutes ago. Other than that, everything looked normal...that is, until a strange truck caught his eye. He watched it begin to slow down as it drew closer, and it eventually stopped-right next to FentonWorks! A bit freaked out, Danny wondered if he should tell his parents. He never finished the thought.

"Daniel and Jasmine Fenton! Get down here right now!" Maddie shouted from downstairs.

Danny pulled away from the window and hurried to the bedroom door. "Mom, I can't!" he called. "I have homework!" In a similar fashion, Jazz announced that she had to study.

"You can't _possibly_ have so much work to do that you can't watch us turn on the ghost portal. You have all day for that, while this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience!"

Danny sighed for the loss of his sweet escape before throwing the door open and storming down the stairs. Jazz, not to seem immature, calmly exited her bedroom and started downstairs. The siblings both met their mother's masked glare.

"You're _both_ going to watch us activate the ghost portal."

"It's the _Fenton_ portal!" Jack corrected.

"Yes, the _Fenton_ ghost portal," Maddie repeated. "It won't take more than five minutes of you time, kids. I promise."

"Down to the lab we go!" Jack exclaimed.

The Fentons moved on to the downstairs laboratory. Jack and Maddie were bubbling over with excitement, while Jazz and Danny simply followed behind, disappointed that they were stuck watching this anyway. Jazz muttered complaints to herself, whereas Danny began to grow curious. What would the portal look like if it worked? Now that he thought about it, a portal to another dimension _did_ sound rather cool...although it sounded absurd at the same time.

Suddenly, a feeling of impending doom struck Danny. He peeked over his shoulder. There was nothing there except the lab walls and the stairway back up to ground level. Danny couldn't identify it, but _something_ was giving him the creeps. _I'm just paranoid,_ he thought to himself.

"Get ready, kids! We're about to make history!" Jack declared. He got ready to plug in and activate the portal. That very moment, the feeling of woe spiked in Danny.

"Not today, Jack Fenton!" cried a male voice from the stairway. Danny's breath caught in his throat. He knew that voice...he knew that accent... "Drop the cords!"

Jack stared, dumbfounded, but obediently dropped the cords. Danny turned around to see none other than Amity Park's new mayor. Not only him, but some fierce-looking, armed backup.

Danny gulped. What had his family done wrong?

. . . . . . .

**Chapter 1 is OVER! And because I'm a cruel (loljk) person, I'm leaving you on a cliffhanger... w hanging on the beginning of a plot twist that will set the stage for the whole trilogy. Yay! We're actually getting somewhere! :D**

**The next chapter WILL change the entire mood of everything so far. I tried to start off with a little fun before we got into the serious stuff, while incorporating (Did I spell that right?) many of the mainstays of this story.**

**Did I mention I like reviews? :D They will PROBABLY get you a faster update. Reviews = happy Panhead = faster update = sooner cliffhanger relief. I think... Well, reviews DO equal a happy Panhead. :3**


	3. Chapter 2: Broken and Lonely

**Hi! I'm much later than expected, but here I am! ^^ I'm probably usually gonna be a once-a-monther for this story...if I don't lose my inspiration. :P You're looking at 3 weeks as a minimum time, and there's no maximum, because I lose inspiration easily. PLEASE review!. Only got two reviews last chapter... Sheesh, people, I go through all this trouble to keep you guys happy and not many review. :/**

**THIS CHAPTER= ANGSTY. This is where your angst comes in, plus a little plot twist which is the basis of the entire story. (I bet you didn't see that coming, all you who don't watch me on DA.)**

**Frontlines: Chapter 2- Broken and Lonely**

,.~*~.,

The Fenton family stared, shocked, at the hostile invading force. The mayor strode forward, both hands folded neatly behind his back. Danny felt a chill run down his spine.

"Now then," the mayor began, "which one of you decided to build this thing in the first place?" There was a terrifying silence. The mayor's eyes surveyed the frightened and confused faces staring back at him. "No answer?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well, then, I'll just guess." He turned to Jazz. "This girl is intelligent. Perhaps _she_ conceived the idea." He grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Hey!" Jazz exclaimed. She tried to wrench away, but the mayor's iron grip held her in place.

"No! Mr. Mayor, let her go! I'm to blame," Jack admitted. "I'll give myself in if it means my family will be safe."

"I'm to blame, as well," Maddie said. "If you take my husband, you should also take me."

Danny's jaw dropped in astonishment. "Mom, Dad...you can't do that!"

"Yes they can, my boy," the mayor said. "They are ordered to. They have broken a _fatal_ rule."

Danny couldn't speak. He backed off a few steps, gaze switching from the faces of his parents to the menacing frown of the mayor.

The mayor snapped his fingers. "Guards, take these two away." Two armed men stepped forward and grabbed Jack and Maddie by the shoulders. Then, they were forcefully pushed upstairs to be taken away to prison.

Jazz stiffened. Danny glanced at her, keeping calm despite how much he was panicking on the inside. The redhead marched up to the mayor. "Just who do you think you are?" she began. "What rule did they break? As far as I knew, there was no rule against building a _ghost portal!"_

"But there is," the mayor said, a twisted smile growing on his face. "And you, my dear, have just broken another _very_ serious rule."

"And _that_ is...?" Jazz demanded.

"Punishable by immediate death." At once, a gunshot rang out. Danny watched in horror as his sister took a bullet to the head. With a second shot, Jazz had received an open hole in her chest. She fell to the ground, her life rapidly slipping away.

"Jazz!" Danny screamed. He almost ran to her side, but fear overtook him. His sky-blue eyes, clouded with growing tears, rose up to meet the mayor's. The man had a pistol in his hand, still smoking with the fresh shot.

Danny couldn't tear his eyes away from the bloody scene, despite how much he wanted to. The longer he stared, the further the image ingrained itself into his mind: His sister lying on the floor as the last of her life slipped away through the blood which slowly oozed from the bullet wounds, and the mayor standing over her with the killing weapon in his hand. It was a permanent scar, now. That image could never be erased. The entire time, the mayor had an evil grin etched on his face that made Danny's blood run cold. _That_ could never be forgotten, either.

The mayor raised an eyebrow at the confused, terrified teenager. "Goodbye, Daniel," he said.

Danny was prepared to take a bullet to the heart. Instead of shooting, however, the mayor put the gun away. He turned around and walked back up the stairs, hands behind his back. Once the man and his armed guards had left, Danny collapsed to the ground and began to cry. He hadn't cried in forever, but he remembered when he was a child, he cried all the time. Whenever he cried then, no matter how silly the matter, Jazz or his mother were always there to comfort him. But they weren't now, and they couldn't. Maddie was going to prison and Jazz was now dead.

Danny calmed his crying down to a sob and crawled up next to his sister's body. He avoided looking at her face, for he couldn't bear to look upon her blank cyan eyes without hurting even more inside. His life had fallen apart in a mere five minutes - five minutes in which his parents could have been celebrating their first real success. Instead, those minutes had been spent in fear, death, and agony...and the overwhelming feeling of powerlessness.

"I'm a horrible brother," Danny choked out, burying his face in his hands. "I'm sorry for all those times I refused your advice; sorry for when I thought you were a nuthead. Forgive me now, please..."

Jazz, of course, didn't answer. Her body lay as still as ever, not even pulsing blood anymore. Danny forced himself to look at her gruesome, frozen expression of pain. He shuddered and reached a shaky hand towards her face to close her lifeless eyes. But no...no, Danny couldn't bring himself to touch her. The pain was still too fresh, too real. He drew his hand back to wipe away a cascade of new tears. It was then that he began to cry and convulse uncontrollably. He collapsed further onto the lab floor, cold and scared. "Why is this happening? Please be a dream, please!"

Danny's crying couldn't turn back the clock, and neither could his hoping this was all a dream reset everything. He hoped it was a dream, yes, but he knew it on the inside. He knew it was all real. His parents really _had_ been arrested, and his sister really _was _dead. He was broken and lonely, with no one to turn to.

Danny grabbed his sister's still warm hand, embracing the last bit of life he could get from her. This truly _had _been the worst day of his life, and it was far from over. If only he could escape it...

Exhausted by his crying, the raven-haired boy rested his head on the floor and shut his eyes. He soon drifted off into a deep, lethargic sleep.

,.~*~.,

Fresh sunlight lit Sam's path as she walked to school the next morning. "It's a nice day today," she commented to Tucker.

The boy in the red beret, who had had his nose in a video game, lifted his head. "Huh?"

Sam grunted in disgust. "Never mind."

The teens continued walking. "Say, Sam...where's Danny?" Tucker's sudden question prompted Sam to look around. Her friend's familiar black hair and white t-shirt were nowhere to be seen.

"I don't know," the Goth answered, shrugging. "But he's gonna be late if he's not out of bed by now."

"The guy was probably up playing 'Doomed' all night or something," Tucker suggested.

"Makes sense," Sam agreed. "We know him too well." The girl still felt strange with only Tucker with her. She, Tucker, and Danny were an inseparable trio! Walking all the way to school without their timid friend seemed _very_ odd. "We'll see him later," Sam reassured herself.

,.~*~.,

Danny woke up on a hard surface. It took him a few moments to realize it was the lab floor, and to recall what had happened that previous afternoon. He sat up. He was sore from his night on the floor, but at least the pain of losing his parents and sister wasn't as fresh. The boy nervously squeezed something in his hand.

Suddenly, Danny realized what that cold mass wrapped up in his hand was. He gasped and let Jazz's hand go. The little bit of blood that had leaked out of her wounds had dried, leaving her with an ugly brown stain on her head. Danny still couldn't stand her horrifying expression. In an attempt to help ease his pain, he made the mistake of looking into her dull eyes...

A startling flashback flashed before Danny's mind's eye. He once again saw the mayor standing over his dying sister, a smoking gun in his hand. The boy jumped in fear. He panted, trying to calm down. He reached out with his hand and slowly drew the eyelids over Jazz's eyes, breathing deeply.

"I need to do something with her body," Danny said to himself. "Like...give her a funeral or something."

Suddenly, his watch beeped. "Eight o' clock?" he mumbled. "In the _morning_? I slept _that long_?" The significance of that number suddenly hit Danny. "I'm thirty minutes late for school!"

Though school wasn't very important to Danny any more, he decided he should go, anyway. After all, he didn't want to know what consequence there was for _not_ staying in school; plus, his friends needed to hear the news.

,.~*~.,

It was now 8:30 AM. Sam and Tucker were trying to listen to their science lesson, which seemed strangely tiring to Tucker. Tucker usually _loved_ science class. After all, it was directly tied into technology, plus is was his only "A". But today he couldn't seem to concentrate on anything, as if his brain had gone to some distant, faraway planet. He was still worrying about his best friend, Danny.

He knew that the boy's crazy parents had activated (or _tried_ to activate) their "ghost portal" that previous afternoon. Tucker wondered if Danny's absence was due to that. Perhaps he was up until three AM playing video games, or cramming for their history quiz. Maybe a spring cold had attacked him...

The classroom door opened. Tucker instinctively looked up to see who was coming in. A burden symbolically fell off his shoulders when he saw the sleek dark hair and slender frame of Danny Fenton.

"Mr. Fenton, you're late," Mr. Dunn said, glowering at the teen disapprovingly.

"I know, Mr. Dunn. I'm sorry, it couldn't be helped."

"Take your seat silently," Mr. Dunn commanded. Danny nodded briskly and headed toward his desk.

Tucker smiled at him and waved. Danny simply looked at him in acknowledgement before sitting down and turning his attention to the front of the room. Tucker's smile turned into a small frown. Something seemed to be bothering his friend deeply; the last time Tucker had seen Danny act this way was five years ago, when his grandmother was sick in a hospital bed.

Something really, seriously bad must have happened; after all, Danny usually _always_ smiled back when greeted with a smile and a wave. To simply acknowledge a greeting was so un-Danny of his friend that Tucker grew even more worried.

Sam had also noticed how sad Danny looked. Something terrible had happened, and the Goth girl couldn't help but be concerned. She hadn't been friends with Danny for as long as Tucker had, but she was just as close. She, too, had seen the same weighted look in her friend's eyes before; but this time, something seemed to be much different. Danny seemed to be haunted by some thought that he couldn't let go of. When the bell rang, she decided to ask her friend a question.

,.~*~.,

Danny was beginning to wonder why he'd gone to school today in the first place. Somehow, the smile of his best friend Tucker had managed to irritate him. Though Danny know the boy in the beret didn't know what had happened, he couldn't help but feel like Tucker was intentionally trying to mess with his emotions. The smile and wave seemed cynical, almost mocking, to him.

He had felt Sam's studying gaze all throughout science class, too. He knew that, like Tucker, she was only concerned, but Danny didn't want to be looked at, talked to, or bothered. He had just wanted to grab the books from his locker and head off to English class, but no. He had to be spoken to.

"Danny, what's wrong?" Sam asked.

Danny bit the side of his mouth. "Later, Sam," he said, shutting his locker. "Now isn't a good time."

"Knowing _that_ look, _no _time is a good time," Sam said. "You haven't acted like this since your grandma was dying in the hospital."

Danny looked down and muttered something so low that Sam had to strain to understand him. "Grandma Fenton didn't die." The teen turned away and headed towards Mr. Lancer's classroom, leaving Sam in confusion.

Danny's stubbornness only made Sam want to try even harder. She'd try again at lunch, and even try to get Tucker to help Danny open up.

,.~*~.,

"Danny, you've got to eat _something,"_ Tucker told his raven-haired friend, who had been simply picking at his lunch for fifteen minutes.

Danny grunted. "I don't _want_ to eat," he sighed, twirling his fork in his salad. Despite having not eaten since noon that previous day, he wasn't really hungry at all.

"Danny, why don't you just tell us what's wrong?" Sam suggested. "Then maybe you'll feel better."

Danny paused what he was doing. "I...it...it hurts to talk about it," he stuttered. "Come to my place after school and I'll show you." The teen resumed picking at his food.

Sam and Tucker exchanged worried glances. It was worse then they'd thought. "Well, try to eat _something,_" Tucker urged, "Since you've already got the food."

"How can I eat?" Danny snapped. "My life has just gone down the toilet, and you just want me to act like nothing ever happened?!"

"No! Not at all," Tucker defended himself, wary of his friend's icy stare.

"Danny, look," began Sam, "I know it hurts, but shutting us out _isn't_ going to make the pain stop!"

Danny's gaze fell back down to his tray. "I know," he mumbled. "And I told you I'd show you what the problem was. What's the big deal?"

"We're only concerned for you, man," Tucker said.

"I know that, too," Danny murmured. He poked his turkey sandwich. "And in that case, I'll tell you the part that isn't as painful." Danny paused and took a hesitant breath inward. Sam and Tucker leaned closer to their friend. After exhaling, the raven-haired teen revealed part of his pain. "My parents were arrested yesterday, just because they built a _ghost portal."_

Sam's jaw fell open. "Say _what?!_" she exclaimed. "Was it authorized?"

"Yeah," rasped Danny. "Our mayor himself showed up to order the arrest."

"That is _so_ wrong," Tucker agreed.

Danny snorted. "Tell me about it." Danny had to admit, telling his friends about the arrest _had_ lifted part of his burden. Still, he felt horrid about his sister's death. The image of her death continued to haunt his subconsciousness, eating away at him like a parasite. He felt like he had _let_ her die...

"Something should be done about this!" Sam exclaimed, pounding a fist on the table.

"_Nothing_ can be done about it," Danny sighed in defeat. "They'd arrest us, too, or worse..." Sam saw Danny's eyes cloud over with fear. The boy shook his head absently.

"So your parents are gone," Tucker noted. "All the more reason to eat that while you can. You might not be able to for a while." The boy pointed to Danny's lunch tray, still full of completely untouched food.

"I guess you're right," Danny muttered. He picked up the turkey sandwich to take a bite, but he only stared at it tiredly. "I don't know...I can't eat," he sighed, setting the food back down onto the tray. "I feel too sick from this incident."

"Save it for later, then," Sam suggested.

Danny nodded. Seconds later, the class bell rang. Sam and Tucker stood, but Danny didn't move. He planted his face into his folded arms, using them as some sort of pillow.

"Come on, Danny. We've gotta go to class," said Tucker.

"I just wanna go home," whimpered Danny. He sounded like a five-year-old afraid of something no one else seemed to see.

"Then we'll _all_ go," Tucker declared, furrowing his brow in determination.

Danny lifted his head and blinked. "What? Won't we get in trouble?"

"Definitely," Sam said, "but we can't let you suffer here for the rest of the day."

"Thanks, guys." For the first time since 5:30 that previous afternoon, Danny smiled a bit.

,.~*~.,

The three friends had escaped from the school with relative ease and without acknowledgement. Even Mr. Lancer, who was seemingly omnipresent, never showed his face. The three teens had made a clean getaway and were now next to Danny's place.

"Well, shall we go in?" Tucker questioned, ascending the steps to the front door.

"Let me in first," Danny ordered in a shaky voice. He twisted the brown paper bag in his hands nervously. The black haired teenager strode up the stairs to his house and slowly opened the door. Stepping inside, Danny took in a sharp gasp of air. He shivered. The air inside had a cold, abandoned feeling to it; Danny didn't like it one bit. Regardless of how creeped out the boy was, he took a few more steps inside.

Tucker followed him in next, and last to enter was Sam. They felt the chill in the air as well. "This place is...weird," Sam declared, "_Really_ weird without your parents."

"Come with me," Danny commanded weakly. He dropped his makeshift lunchbag onto the kitchen table, then headed toward the lab. His friends followed. Danny froze on top of the staircase. An air of darkness oozed up into Danny's senses, urging him not to go downstairs. The frightened teen ignored it and turned to face his expectant friends. "Brace yourselves," he warned. "You might be startled by what you see."

Sam noticed a quantity of pain and fear flash in Danny's eyes, and a lot of hesitation, too. It was clear that Danny _did not_ want to go down there. Nevertheless, he descended the stairs down to the cursed lab.

Halfway down, a sour, bitter smell filled Sam's nostrils. She was about to ask Danny what that could be, but the sight at the bottom of the stairs silenced whatever words were about to come out. Danny looked at Jazz's body solemnly. A silent tear fell from his eye and rolled down his pale cheek. Tucker had frozen as well. For about one minute, the three held a silent vigil for the dead girl.

Finally, Tucker broke the silence. "So, how long has she..." he swallowed, "...been dead?"

"Roughly twenty-four hours," Danny replied. He knelt down next to Jazz's body and stroked her broken forehead.

"Such a waste," growled Sam, shaking her head. "I may not have liked her very much, but she was the most intelligent person I've ever met."

"She could have been the inventor of the future," Tucker added.

"She was my sister...that's all that matters to me," Danny murmured. Raisisng his voice slightly, he added, "And I can't get over her death."

"Well, it's only been a day," Sam reminded him. "I don't expect you to be over it yet; time heals all. But until then, we've got to find out who's responsible for this." Anger edged Sam's last sentence and sparked in her amethyst eyes. Danny was silent. "Well, who did it? Who shot her?" Sam was clearly outraged.

Danny siged and stood up. "Fine, but you wouldn't be able to act on it," he spat bitterly. "She was shot by..." His voice broke as the dreadful scene flashed before his mind's eye yet again: The mayor's evil grin as he fired the two bullets into his sister's skull and heart... "It was...the mayor himself."

Sam gasped. _"He_ did it?" Sam breathed, unable to comprehend what she had just heard. "_He's_ to blame for all of this?" The Goth was disgusted. What kind of a _monster_ would kill an innocent teenaged girl on a whim?

Danny shook his head. "No, Sam..._I'm_ to blame."

Tucker looked at his friend, a confused and shocked look on his face. "You? But...you just _said_ the mayor shot Jazz, _and_ arrested your parents."

"I brought this on them!" Danny wailed. Bottled-up emotion within him began to explode as more tears began to fall. "_I_ wished Mom and Dad were gone! _I_ mistreated Jazz! It's my fault! It's all _my fault!"_

,.~*~.,

**Aw, poor Danny. Guy thinks he's to blame for everything. We can only imagine what Sam will say about this...**

**While typing this last part, I had a renewed interest in typing this story! I'm so excited to write it and bring it to you! ^^ I have so much in mind for future chapters and books!**

**Well, I had planned on updating earlier, but I'll try to make it up to you. I make no promises, but I'll TRY to update on or near Christmas!**

**I still don't like "update soons"! XD**


	4. Chapter 3: Robin Hood

**Back with chapter 3! ^^ Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you enjoyed the last chapter...Jazz's death was necessary to set the stage for the story, cause I needed something that had to hurt Danny a great deal...something more than just his parents being arrested. It wouldn't have left such an important scar in Danny's mind. :/**

**Well, read! MERRY CHRISTMAS! XD It's an extra long read.**

**Frontlines: Chapter 3- Robin Hood**

,.~*~.,

There's a saying: You don't know what you have until it's gone. Young Danny Fenton had recently learned the meaning of this phrase in a very real, very painful way. His parents, whom he had regarded as crazy, had been arrested. Danny blamed himself for that arrest. He had considered (and called) his sister, Jazz, a bossy know-it-all. Now she was dead, and the teen was powerless to change anything. Danny blamed himself for that as well. A crushing burden of guilt had begun to suffocate him, and in three words, he had tried to let it out.

"It's _my fault!"_

"No, Danny, it is _not!_ The mayor did all of this!" Sam urged her friend, who was on the verge of a total emotional breakdown. "You're got to calm yourself down and be _real._"

"I _am_ being real!" Danny snapped. "It's all my fault! I got Mom and Dad arrested because of that stupid wish I made yesterday! Don't you guys understand?"

Tucker blinked. "Actually, no. You're making no sense."

Danny scoffed. "It makes _perfect_ sense! I... it just..." The fire in Danny's eyes died down. "It's my fault because... I didn't treat them right." Danny sat down next to his sister's body and buried his face in his knees. He looked absolutely miserable.

"Danny," Tucker addressed, "Don't go emo on us. _That_ wouldn't be cool."

Danny looked up at Tucker. "You can start on de-emofying me by helping me bury Jazz."

"How would we do that?" Sam asked. "It could take forever."

Danny frowned. "Well, I kind of want to get rid of the pain _now_," he said. "We could just... at least take her body out of the house. And then like...put her in some bushed or something... in a ceremony of some sort."

Tucker nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me."

Danny stood up. "I... I don't know if I can touch her without freaking out," he said. He glanced down nervously at the body. "I can't stop thinking about how she died."

"Then _we'll_ carry her," Sam suggested innocently.

Danny narrowed his eyes. "No, _I_ have to carry her," he retorted. "It's the least I could do to forgive myself."

Sam sighed in exasperation. "It's _not._ Your. Fault!" she enunciated.

"It _is._ My. Fault!" Danny half-mocked. He crossed his arms. The two stubborn teens glared at each other until Tucker broke the silent war.

"Guys, let's not start this argument again," he warned. "If Danny wants to carry Jazz's body, he can do it."

"I _have_ to," Danny retorted coolly.

"Whatever," growled Sam. She rolled her eyes.

Danny glanced back at his sister's body. "Let's do this," he muttered. He bent down next to Jazz and tucked his arms under her legs and back. With surprising strength, Danny heaved the body up. "Let's go," he panted.

The young teen solemnly made his way up the stairs to the main level of the house. Tucker and Sam followed him. Danny's arms trembled as he carried his sister's corpse to the front door. Tears fell from his baby blue eyes and shook down his cheeks as he walked. Sam held open the door for her friend while Tucker helped him out. The boys slowly descended the stairway to Danny's small front yard. Sam shut the door and hurried to join them.

There were a few bushes in front of FentonWorks. Danny knelt down and set Jazz's body in them to where they hid her completely. Then he rose to his feet, tears streaming down his face. "Goodbye, Jazz," he rasped. "I hope you know how much I loved you, despite what I've done." His head drooped. He stood there for a few seconds, silently grieving.

A hand touched each of the boy's shoulders. Danny looked back to see Tucker on his left. "We're here for ya, man," he said, giving his friend a grave smile.

The hand on his right shoulder gave a gentle squeeze. Danny looked at Sam. "This shouldn't have happened," she said, "but we'll help you get through it. Promise."

"Thanks, guys," Danny said with a cracked voice. "I'd have never made it this far without you. Thanks."

Suddenly, a low, rumbling sound came from a distance. It steadily grew louder until Danny distinguished it as a truck. And he recognized the sound of that truck!

"Guys, quick! We've got to get inside the house!" he exclaimed. The teen ripped himself away from his friends, ran up the front stairs, and threw open the front door. Tucker exchanged a startled glance with Sam before they both followed Danny inside.

Sam slammed the door shut and ran after her friends up to Danny's room. "What is it? What's going on?" she questioned, shutting the bedroom door.

Danny shook with fear. "It's... _them,_" he whispered. "Get down!" The teens all crouched down on the ground as the truck outside screeched by.

A voice came on over a loudspeaker. "_**Be on the lookout for Tucker Foley, Samantha Manson, and Daniel Fenton. They have left school and need to be returned. And if they are hearing this message, it would be wise for them to give themselves up **_**now.**"

"They're looking for us," Sam whispered in disbelief.

"I know," Tucker whispered back. "I hope they don't search here."

The sound of the truck's motor faded off into the distance. "Forget that," Danny said, breathless. He placed his hand on his heavily beating heart. "They're gone." Danny stood up again and peeked out the window. He saw the gray truck disappearing over the horizon. The message repeated.

Sam rose to her feet. "We're not giving ourselves up, are we, Danny?" she asked gravely.

Danny shook his head. "I'd rather die. But it may come to it."

"It shouldn't," Tucker stated, standing.

"I know," Danny admitted. He yawned. "I'm tired. I think I'm gonna take a nap." the teen collapsed onto his bed. "You guys can go if you want to...I'll be fine in here. Feel free to leave the room."

Tucker nodded, wanting to respect his friend's wishes, and left the room. But Sam sat down on the edge of Danny's bed and folded her arms. "I'm not leaving," she said.

"Fine," Danny growled, grabbing his pillow and covering his head with it. "But I need quiet. No conversations."

Sam nodded and slid onto the floor. "I'll be here."

Though Danny pretended to be irritated, he was glad Sam had chosen to stay in his room with him. Though he had said he would be fine by himself, he felt safer with his best friend around. He knew from experience that she could hold her own in a fight. Danny, on the other hand, had always been too weak to stand up to anybody; Sam was usually there to fight for him and for Tucker. Feeling safe and comfortable, Danny smiled and began to drift off to sleep.

,.~*~.,

Danny was in the lab, staring at the "ghost portal" in awe. It was as clean and pristine as it had been before. It had obviously not been thrown together in a day. Danny rubbed his hand against its sleek steel frame, admiring the smooth feel beneath his fingers. It calmed him somehow.

The teen didn't know what he was doing in the lab or why he had such a sudden interest in the Fenton ghost portal, or even how he'd gotten there. He just knew he was _there._

"_Danny."_

Danny looked over his shoulder, thinking he'd heard his name. There was nobody there, so he shrugged it off as his mind playing tricks on him. He had always been a tad too paranoid for his own good. He turned to look back into the ghost portal. It was dark, but when his eyes adjusted, he saw something. Something strange. Was that... an "On/Off" switch _inside_ the portal?

"That's not right," said Danny, squinting to make sure his eyes weren't acting up. He stepped inside to get a closer look.

"_Da-anny!"_ Danny jumped when he heard his name again. This couldn't be paranoia...

"Who's there?" he called. His only response was the echo of his own voice inside the empty ghost portal. The room temperature dropped about ten degrees. Danny grew cold and shivered. Something was in the air, making tingles go up and down his spine. He turned to leave the ghost portal and saw Jazz looking back at him.

"Jazz? What is it?" the boy asked, stepping out of the portal. Something in the back of his mind told him she was dead, but it went unnoticed. Jazz opened her mouth to speak, but became petrified. "What is it?" Danny asked, running to his sister.

She stared at him with frightened eyes. "Danny, no! Don't-!" Jazz's words were cut short by two gunshots. Once again, Jazz was lying on the ground, an unrealistic amount of blood dripping to the floor. But this time, she turned to look at her brother with pleading cyan eyes. "Help me, Danny," she rasped. Danny couldn't do anything but watch as his sister's body fell limp below him.

Danny looked up to see the mayor bearing down on him with a demonic grin on his lips. The boy stared right back at him, even as the man's eyes grew as black and empty as a bottomless pit. A sudden passion filled his veins. "_WHY?"_ he screamed. "Why did you shoot her?!"

Suddenly, Danny found himself standing in the place where the mayor had been seconds before. Now he was the one with the shotgun, standing over his sister's dead body...

,.~*~.,

"NO!" Danny bolted upright in bed, now wide awake. He was in his room, with Sam sleeping on the floor beside his bed. The room had darkened considerably since he had gone to sleep for his nap. The teen got out of bed and shook Sam by the shoulder. "Sam," he earnestly addressed, "Sam! Sam, wake up!"

Sam stirred. "Hmm?" she grunted. She opened one violet eye. "Danny? What's wrong?"

"Crazy dream," Danny replied. He placed his hand on his head. "Or a terrible nightmare... I saw Jazz die... _again._"

Sam sat up. "That sounds horrible," she said.

"What time is it?" asked Danny.

"Almost four," Sam responded.

"The sun's already going down," the boy muttered, scratching the back of his head in confusion.

"Actually, I closed your blinds a couple of hours ago so the sun wouldn't get in your eyes, or mine," Sam explained.

"Oh," Danny interjected. "You can leave them closed. Let's go downstairs and see what Tucker's up to."

Sam agreed and stood up, stretching her arms. The two friends left Danny's room and headed downstairs. Tucker was in the living room, messing with one of his many PDAs. he looked up from the couch to see his friends coming down the stairs. "Hey, guys," he greeted with a friendly smile. "How was the nap, Danny?"

"Terrible," Danny groaned, rubbing his eyes. "My dream left me even more tired. I saw Jazz die for a second time." He paused for a second. "But...it was so much worse." Danny and Sam sat down next to Tucker.

"How?" Tucker inquired. Concern filled his hazel-green eyes.

"Well, to start, I was in the lab, looking at the ghost portal. I had some weird interest in it, too. Something called my name, but... nothing was there. And... and when I turned around, Jazz was standing there. She looked kinda scared. So... I ran to see what was wrong, but then... then she was shot, just like before. But there was so much more blood... so much more pain..." his voice broke. He shook his head and took a deep breath. "She begged me to help her, but I couldn't do a thing. She was gone before I could. And then... the mayor appeared there, smirking like... like an insane devil. I remember wanting to know why he shot her, and then... and then..." Danny's eyes grew dark. "I... _I_ was the one with the gun in my hand... like... like I had killed Jazz."

"And that's how it ended?" Tucker asked quietly. Danny nodded without a word.

Sam looked thoughtful. "It's just like any other nightmare," she said. "Nightmares are fears manifested in your unconscious mind. You were telling us that you thought it was _your_ fault that Jazz was dead. So obviously, that fear came to life in your dream."

Danny frowned and sighed through his nose. "The ghost portal? The voice calling my name?"

Sam shook her head in thought. "I don't know. The portal could have been a stray thought before you thought about Jazz."

"Or maybe the portal itself linked my thoughts to Jazz's death," Danny theorized. "And the voice?"

Sam pursed her lips. "I don't know about that," she said. "But try to forget about it. We have to focus on a way to teach this mayor a lesson."

Danny gulped, remembering how sunken and freaky the mayor's face had become in his nightmare. He looked down to hide his expression of fear. "We _can't,_" he growled in defeat.

"Why not?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah, why not? What's stopping us?" Sam agreed.

"Jazz was shot for fighting him," Danny said. "I don't want that to happen to us. Besides, he's the _mayor..."_

"Jazz was only one against many," Sam thought out loud. Her eyes suddenly widened with an idea.

Tucker, conceiving the same idea, looked at Sam with bright eyes. "But with an _army,_ we may have a chance," he finished Sam's words.

The Goth smirked. "Exactly."

Danny looked up, catching the looks his two best friends were sharing with each other, looks which he was right in the middle of. "What's going on here?" he asked suspiciously. His eyes narrowed. "You're not thinking about..."

Sam nodded. "Whether you like it or not, yes. Yes we are."

"I wish we could do something. I honestly do," Danny said, jumping to his feet. "But we just... _can't._ There's nothing we can do."

"But there _is,_" Sam retorted. "And you're the only one who can do it."

"Raise up an army?" Danny scoffed. "You've _got_ to be kidding. I can't do that!"

"Yes, you can!" Sam exclaimed, raising her voice.

Danny wasn't convinced. "How?" he asked. "Humor me."

"Tucker and I could rally up the other Casper High students to come here. Then you could explain your situation, they could all get mad at the mayor, and you could have an army to fight!"

Danny shook his head. "It wouldn't work," he dismissed the idea with a sad sigh. "You know I can't stand up in front of people! And they wouldn't listen to us in the first place. We're 'geeks', remember? No one listens to us."

"We're not geeks any more. Think of us as soldiers fighting for a noble cause," Sam explained. "Many of the older teens knew and respected Jazz. That may be enough."

"Danny, one more thing," Tucker added, "They _definitely_ won't listen if you're depressed. You've got to get out of this 'I can't' attitude!"

Danny was starting to get a headache from all the mental stress coming at him from his friends. "I _can't!_" he snapped. "I just can't!"

"OK, fine!' Sam growled. "We can't make you. but think about this: The lives of many are in your hands now. Will you take this opportunity to do something, or will you wallow in your miserable self-pity and doubts?" Danny was quiet. "You have the chance to do something great, Danny. Don't you want to finally have that power?"

Danny muttered two words. "I can't."

Sam opened her mouth to yell something, but the words never came. Tucker grabbed her arm just in time. "Let's go. He should figure this out on his own," the boy whispered to his Goth friend. Sam looked at Danny, then back at Tucker. She nodded. The two teens left the room.

Five minutes passed as Sam's strong words began to sink into Danny's thick skull. Danny now began to pace the room, confused. His head was spinning. He had been trying to convince himself that he couldn't do anything about his situation. But now he was beginning to see how wrong and selfish he really was. He was being presented with a chance to change things, to really _change_ things, and he was ignoring it.

Now Danny began to see what could happen if he had a whole _army_ of people fighting alongside him. The idea was brilliant, though it still involved himself standing in front of the people whom he disliked and confiding in them... Danny hated the very thought. Considering if they listened, however, the reward would be glorious. Above all, he could finally have the ability to do something, whether he was to blame for his troubles or not.

"I'll do this," he said. "I'll do this for Jazz." Danny lifted his head up and straightened his shoulders. He had to fight for what was right, and the mayor was most definitely _not_ right. Danny narrowed his eyes in determination. "I've _got_ to do it. For Mom, for Dad, for Jazz... for _everybody."_ He clenched his fists.

A passion he had never felt before rushed through his veins. The tiredness and grief washed right out of him. It was as if the heavy burden of guilt had been ripped off his shoulders and had been replaced with courage... pure courage. He was willing to take risks, fight, or _anything_ in the name of his family.

"This feels... _great!"_ Danny exclaimed. He darted off to his sister's room and began digging through her drawer. "If I'm gonna do this, I should probably look the part," he said to himself. "How about..." Danny's eyes brightened, "_this."_ He held up a long, red, silky cloth. He remembered this from when Jazz was a little girl! She wore it as a ribbon all the time. Of course, Danny wasn't going to use it as a ribbon. He was going to wear it as a headband. He ran to the mirror and wrapped it around his head twice. Then, to keep it from coming off, he tucked the remaining end under and over the newly formed headband. After that, the remaining end drooped down over the left side of his face.

Danny looked at himself in the mirror, satisfied. He had the same raven-black hair and baby blue eyes, the same face and the same clothes. But he felt different inside. A new fire of courage had been set ablaze inside of him, renewing everything he had ever known about himself. Right there, in that time, he felt like he could do _anything._

"So, you're actually going through with this?" Danny turned around to see Sam looking at him through the open doorway.

Danny grinned. "Whatever made you think that?" he laughed. "I am, by the way." He flipped his dark bangs out of his face. "How do I look?"

"You're the one who was just looking in the mirror," said Sam with a chuckle. "But I'd have to say you look... brave."

"I _feel_ brave, too," Danny agreed.

"That's because you _are_ brave," the Goth girl said. Sam noticed her friend's eyes sparkled with a new light; they were as bright a blue as sapphire. _Everything_ was new about him, from his attitude to his expressions.

A smile was on Danny's face as he began to walk toward Sam. "Hey...you really think I'm brave?" he asked.

"Yeah," Sam replied. "And you've always been brave."

"How?" Danny quirked an eyebrow.

"You always took Dash's taunts so calmly," Sam began, "And you became friends with me when no one else would. That's brave enough in my book."

"You're braver," Danny said. "You _fought_ Dash once, in third grade. Remember? He'd pushed Tucker off the swings. And, well... you _did_ talk to me and help me up when we first met. I felt obliged."

"I'm glad you did," Sam said.

"I haven't regretted it yet," said Danny with a smile.

Tucker came in. "Danny! You're feeling better already?" he asked. "And what's with the headband?"

"I thought it looked cool, but rebellious. You like it?"

"It's OK," Tucker said. "Not my idea of cool, but definitely rebellious."

"Like you would know what looks cool, Tuck," Danny teased.

"Hey! This is classic techno-geek attire." Tucker adjusted his glasses.

"That tech knowledge could really come in handy if you think about it," Danny mused. "Who knows what we might need to do to start a team?"

"Maybe not to start it, but to help run it," Tucker suggested. "I can figure out how to do _anything_ with my PDA." The boy pulled the sleek digital device from one of the pockets in his cargo pants and showed it off.

"That's what I mean," Danny said. "Never know what advantage your skills with technology could have in this fight."

"What about me? What will I do?" Sam asked.

Danny smirked. "Closest adviser. Second man in command."

"Hey, I started this 'army' idea," Tucker protested.

"You're my tech man and third in command," Danny said. "Don't get me wrong, you're both my closest friends. No hard feelings, Tucker."

"None back. I'm fine with tech guy," said Tucker. "It sounds like a position with a lot of power."

"You'll definitely influence our decisions,' Danny chuckled.

"So it's like a three-headed leadership?" Sam questioned.

"Pretty much," replied Danny. "I'll need all the help I can get."

"Then we'd better get started," Sam declared. "They've released their recall on us. We can go home now. We'll be safe."

"Don't go yet," pleaded Danny. "I still don't wanna be by myself. Besides, we have things to discuss. Like... what I'm gonna say to everyone when you get the others."

"When!" Sam exclaimed, "You're not 'iffing' any more! That's great!"

"Cause I know you guys can do it," Danny responded. "But... what will I say to them?"

"Just tell them what happened; tell them what the mayor's true colors are," Sam explained.

"Then motivate them," Tucker added. "Like, 'we can overcome the mayor with technology!'"

Danny snickered. 'That's more like something _you_ would say. But thanks for the outline." He suddenly looked as if he'd just remembered something. "Hey, is my lunch still on the table?"

"No," Tucker replied. "I put it in the fridge so the turkey wouldn't spoil."

"But it's still here," Danny affirmed. "Good. I think I finally feel well enough to eat it."

"Everything's gonna be all right, isn't it?" Sam asked. She sounded so certain that her determination could have shaken mountains.

Danny smirked boldly- an expression neither Tucker nor Sam had seen him bear. "In time," he said. "I promise."

,.~*~.,

Not long later, the three friends were gathered around the kitchen table. "When do we start, Danny?" Tucker inquired.

"Tomorrow, at school," Danny commanded. "You'll gather the willing students and tell them to meet here at five."

"Got it," Sam said with a nod.

"Yes, sir!" Tucker saluted.

Danny chuckled. "I'm your friend, guys. No need to be so, uh..." Danny searched for the right word, "um... formal."

"You're our leader, now. _Some_ formality is required," Sam said.

"But we're friends. You can be as informal as you want when you're talking to me," Danny explained.

"But you're the main head of our planning," Sam said, trying to get her friend to understand his responsibility. "You're about to be in charge of at least thirty teenagers, all your age or slightly older or younger. You've got to convince them all to fight for your cause!"

Danny had been in the middle of chewing a bite of his turkey sandwich. He now froze at Sam's words. He swallowed slowly. "But... I was hoping you guys could be up there _with_ me," he said. His blue eyes widened.

"This is _your_ job, Danny," Sam told her friend.

"But I'll be by myself, in front of _everyone,_" Danny spoke, faltering.

"Duh," Sam scoffed.

Danny looked hurt. "Sam, I don't think I can-"

"You _can,_ and you _will,"_ Sam interrupted the boy.

"I don't think he should be alone up there, anyway," Tucker said. "He still looks nervous."

"I _am_ nervous," Danny cut in. He tapped his foot restlessly.

Sam looked from Tucker to the antsy Danny and back again. Turning to Danny, then, she said, "Danny, this is still your speech. We'll stand up in front of everyone with you, but _you_ have to be the one to speak."

The boy's eyes narrowed as his confidence returned. He nodded. "For Mom, Dad, and Jazz," he vowed. His family seemed to be his driving force in everything he did recently. He didn't know why Jazz's death or his parents' arrest motivated him the way they did; they just _did._ In fact, Danny actually had an ulterior motive for his actions: He wanted to break his parents out of jail. And with a team... it just might happen.

,.~*~.,

The next day had arrived, and school had ended. Danny hadn't left the house since the day before. Instead, he had been delivering his speech to his reflection for the past two hours. Before that, he had been writing at least fifty different rough draft versions of the speech. The one he was reading off to himself had finally been the one that satisfied him.

Danny was rehearsing for the umpteenth time in those two hours when the doorbell (which, in fact, sounded like a ghostly wail) rang. Danny froze. Was it one of his friends, or was it someone waiting to arrest him for missing school? The bell sounded again. Danny rushed over to the "Fenton Parascope" and looked out at his front door. Sam was there, looking irritated yet excited.

Danny sighed out of relief. He smiled and hurried to let his friend in. "Sorry for the wait, Sam," the boy apologized with a sheepish grin. "I wasn't sure if you were _you,_ or if you were someone who was taking me to prison."

Sam didn't see it as the time for small talk. She walked briskly into the house. "Danny, are you ready? Is the speech done?"

Danny nodded. "Done and ready to be presented to everyone."

"Is there a big enough space here to contain, say... thirty-five teenagers?"

Danny's blue eyes grew huge. "Thirty-five?" he exclaimed in disbelief. Did _that many_ people truly care? "I don't believe it."

"Do you have room?" Sam asked once more.

Danny looked at his feet and played with the end of his headband nervously. "Uh... not immediately. But, um, moving the furniture out of the kitchen should make some more space."

"Let's get to it, then. Tucker will be here with everyone else in just five minutes!" The girl hurried off to the kitchen. So _that_ was why she was in such a hurry.

Together, Danny and Sam moved over the dining room table and chairs. The remaining space was roomy enough, but it would be a tight squeeze. Danny, Sam, and Tucker could use the table as a stage. Danny crawled up onto the table and stood to his feet. Seconds later, the doorbell rang. Sam hurried to open the door while Danny quickly reviewed the speech in his mind.

The door was opened, and a cloud of teens his age, older, or younger poured into the house. Fifteen-year-old Dash scoffed. "What does Fenton want with us that's so important?" he sneered.

"Like, why are we even here?" Star, a blonde satellite for popular girl Paulina, asked. Danny bit his lip, his hope falling with every comment.

"It must be important," Carrots, the tall redhead, pointed out. "Otherwise he wouldn't have invited us all here."

"You're right," Danny said, his voice raised. "It _is_ important. The faster you all get _in_ here, the sooner you can all get _out_ of here." The boy didn't know when he had chosen to speak, but he had. His words must have been powerful, for a deadly hush settled on the crowd. Never before had _any_ of them seen Danny Fenton so confident. Everyone filed into the kitchen as Danny's eyes burned with passion. Some looked generally concerned, like Carrots, but others, like Star, looked like they couldn't care less.

Danny inhaled and exhaled, then began to speak. "What happened in this house two days ago is something that nobody had planned, or wanted." He hesitated, suddenly forgetting the words to his speech. But new words coursed through his veins: Not words from his head or his pencil, but words that came straight from his heart. As chopped up and unsure as they were, they were his words, his feelings. "I assume you all knew Jazz Fenton, my sister?"

Dash nodded with an attempted hidden smile. Valerie shrugged. "Who doesn't?"

"So, um..." Danny twisted the hanging portion of his headband. "I've got some bad news... news that will shock and disgust you."

"Say it already!" a dark-haired sixteen-year-old demanded.

"Give him time to speak, John!" a girl with messy brown hair tied into a ponytail hissed.

Danny cleared his throat. "And regarding that, um," _Why was this so hard?_ "I have to tell you that... that scumbag of a _mayor_ arrested my parents and murdered Jazz!"

Angry gasps resounded through the overcrowded kitchen. Dash's eyes widened. "No..." he whispered, looking dejected. For once, Danny actually felt sorry for the guy. All throughout the crowd, murmuring of contempt for the mayor was heard.

_Great!_ Danny thought with glee. He had gotten them on his side! Danny had to hold back a smile that was beginning to creep onto his face.

"What do you want us to do about it, Danny?" a blonde boy named Ivan called.

"Fight. Fight the mayor!"

Murmurs of agreement were heard, but they were very few. "With what? We're just a bunch of kids against some really powerful guy!" a dark-haired girl with green eyes exclaimed. The murmurs grew louder, but they were now filled with confusion and doubt.

Danny raised his voice above everyone else's. "Let me finish!" he yelled. The deathly hush returned. "We'll use our own talents, strengths, and weapons- whatever you have- to give this man a war he'll _never_ forget! Well, who's with me?"

After Danny had finished speaking, the silence remained. Not a single voice was heard. The boy's heart began to beat loudly. _What if I've made a mistake?_ he thought, paling. The thought had barely crossed his mind when a single, slow clapping was heard. A second person joined in, then a third, then a fourth! Danny's spirits soared higher and higher as more and more people joined in the rapidly speeding applause. Soon, every teen in the room was clapping their hands for the shy raven-haired boy.

Danny couldn't hold back the smile now. He grinned in both excitement and relief. The whole crowd... was clapping... for _him!_ They had actually listened! He watched them all, enjoying his moment of greatness. The new leader felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned to see Sam smiling at him.

"Great job, Robin Hood."

,.~*~.,

**I actually finished typing this...after nearly two months in the writing, and hours out of my days to type... (hours and hours and hours) Nearly twenty pages... I DESPERATELY hope you enjoyed it! *faints***

**Well, I hope you all have a merry Christmas, and a happy new year! CAUSE YOU WON'T GET ANOTHER UPDATE UNTIL NEXT YEAR! HA! Duh. Um... XD**

**Also needless to say, you won't get another twice-in-one-month update like this again, most likely. I worked my tail off with this one...**

**So NO update soons... I say I don't like them and people keep giving them. This is as soon as it will get.**


	5. Chapter 4: Uprising

**Chapter 4... way later than expected. ^^; Tried to get this up before March 1, but that didn't work out... I actually started typing before I finished writing to save time. Chapter 5 should be extra short, so that update should come soon. I make no promises, though... writer's block could hit and everything could fall apart! XD**

**P.S., Anonymous Review Replies in the bottom author's note!**

**Chapter 6 will be another long one, so enjoy these short ones while you can. Well, at least I think this is short. I used both wide and college ruled paper to write it. *shrugs***

**Enjoy it. :D**

**Frontlines: Chapter 4- Uprising**

Danny hadn't been able to believe it. He had convinced nearly thirty-five teenagers to fight on his side, against the mayor! Three days had passed since the team was formed. Since then, after school, they would meet in FentonWorks, which the new leader had established as "home base".

Though the team was formed for a fight against the mayor's rules, even Danny had been going to school those three days, for meals if nothing else. Inconsiderate other young people had cleaned out the kitchen at Danny's place- excepting the emergency ham- without giving anyone else a single thought. But if there _was_ something else, it would be to avoid the mayor's suspicion. It was known that there were spies in the school who listened and watched everything that happened. Due to this, the team was creating a code language to communicate with each other. Whether it was gestures, phrases, words, or something else entirely, the team was coming up with it. They discussed these ideas with each other during after-school meetings.

Not only this, but the team now had a name. Danny had ultimately conceived the idea for the name when Sam had told him that they were soldiers fighting for a cause. He had since then been contemplating as to what that cause was, and he had at last figured it out. Amity Park was oppressed and had restricted freedoms. If a rule was broken, the offender would pay for it... perhaps with his life. So it was upon thinking this thought that Danny had realized the cause: freedom. His team was made of fighters for freedom; they were the Freedom Fighters.

When school hours ended, these Freedom Fighters began what they believed was fighting for freedom. They ran about on the streets, doing random little things that somehow broke one of the mayor's laws. For example: They weren't cooperating with him, or his enforcement. These enforcers, called "peacekeepers", were the constant subject of abuse for the Fighters. They would always throw garbage and insults at the peacekeepers. The name "peacekeeper", however, wasn't an appropriate name for this law enforcement, seeing as they wreaked about as much havoc as the teens.

Needless to say, with a team as wild as his, Danny was glad he had Sam and Tucker to help control them. One good thing about all this chaos was that nobody had gotten specifically caught. Kwan had had a close call just that previous day, but he had escaped his pursuers without his face being seen. The Fighters had stopped being so "daring" after that, but continued to run around carelessly, doing stupid things and hiding from sight.

"They're acting like cowards," Sam said, shaking her head.

Danny sighed. "I don't blame them," he said. "Something horrible was done to my family, so I guess they're worried something might happen to each of theirs. Again, I don't blame them."

"But the only reason you're leading them is because of that," Sam told her friend. "It's personal to you. To them, there _is_ no true motivation. They're just taking this opportunity to break a few rules. If it becomes a personal fight for them, too, they can get out there and fight from the deepest part of themselves. That's what _you've_ had happen to you. The same change has to happen to your army."

Danny nodded, though the thought of more death made him a bit sick. "We'll call them here now, then," he said. "We've got to fight for what's right, and _not_ exist for the sole purpose of annoying peacekeepers."

Tucker, who was with the two at the time, snickered. "Since when were you on the peacekeepers' side?" he asked jokingly.

"I'm not," Danny emphasized. "What I'm saying is we need to _do_ something about them, not just annoy them. We have to get rid of them."

"I... _think_ I understand," Sam said.

"What we're doing, or why we're doing it?" Danny asked her.

"Both, I think," Sam said. "But I don't understand why we have to... kill them."

Danny shook his head. "No, no... I'm not gonna send our team to _kill_ them..." His tone lowered dramatically. "Yet, that is." He then raised his voice to what it had been before. "We'll just give them a fight they won't be prepared for."

"They just see us as pests!" Tucker exclaimed. "They'd be unprepared because they don't see us as a threat!"

"They will," Sam said with a grave smile. "But it'll be at a personal cost to all of us."

Danny looked down in a way that was almost bitter. "What more could they take away from _me?_ I'm out of that bet, I'm sure. But the rest of you guys should be prepared to lose something. Maybe not your own lives, but someone else's. It's inevitable..."

"It's war. You lose stuff all the time," Sam concluded.

"Aw, man! We'll lose our meals, too," Tucker said, sounding woeful.

Sam smirked at her friend's despair. "You might have to eat vegetables if it's all that's available," she said.

Tucker gasped. "No..."

Danny chuckled. "She has a point, Tuck," he said. "But then again, Sam, it could work the other way around. If there's no vegetables, you might have to eat meat."

Sam crossed her arms stubbornly. "I'll just eat grass and leaves, then.'

"And winter?" Tucker asked.

Sam hesitated for a few seconds. "I'll just eat snow, then."

"Sam, be real. Snow is just frozen water," said Danny. "We'll _all_ have to adjust our tastes at some point. Sorry, guys."

"No need to be sorry. It's the new reality for us," Sam countered.

"And man, do I hate reality!" Tucker declared, still upset about the fact he may have to eat vegetables in the near future.

Danny rushed to the front door. "Come on, guys," he ordered. "We've got a team to get together."

()...()...()...()

The meeting of the Freedom Fighters had begun. Danny had just asked his team to stop running around and irking the peacekeepers. "Guys, we're Freedom Fighters, not Peacekeeper Pests!" he was saying. "We've got to _fight_ them, because that's what we're here for!" Danny couldn't help but sound exasperated at the mixmatched bunch of teenagers in front of him. They didn't seem to understand what he was saying... "If you're gonna be called a Freedom Fighter, you might as well _live_ like one."

"But... I don't think any of us even know _how_ to fight, one dark-haired girl pointed out.

Danny, realizing this, sighed through his nose. "We'll all learn, then," the leader said. "Together, as a team." Danny realized that they weren't a team quite yet and still needed some time to organize and settle bonds with one another. Though Danny knew he wasn't a teacher or a guide, he could at least try to be that kind of figure. The group stared at him dumbly. Danny snapped his fingers. Of course! They needed an example! "Dash, you know something about teamwork. Can you come up here and explain it to all of us?"

Dash looked mildly shocked at first, but then looked vainly pleased. Shoving others aside, he strutted up to the table-stage like a cocky rooster. He climbed up onto the table, nearly knocking Danny off his feet in the process. "Thank you, Fenton, for calling upon my _much-needed_ experience," the jock began.

Danny bit his lip. _This was a mistake,_ he thought glumly.

"Anyways," Dash continued, "teamwork involves a lot of chit-chat among the team members, and there's gotta be practice and planning beforehand. Always have a plan B. Casper High Ravens have never had to use their plan B's..."

"Yes we have," Kwan interrupted.

Dash gave him a glare. "OK, maybe a few times. Once," the jock begrudgingly admitted. "There's got to be communication of the team and the team captain or leader. Share ideas, and really get into team spirit." Then, throwing up his huge fist, Dash yelled, "Go Ravens!"

The other jocks and the cheerleaders whooped and hollered with enthusiasm. Dash turned to face Danny with a proud smirk on his face. "And that, Fentina, is how it's done," he whispered.

Danny scowled, but didn't let the mild taunt get to him. Dash was as valuable as every other teen in the Freedom Fighters, if not more important. He was a good team player, and had the size and bulk to take on several adults. His pride could do to be knocked down a bit, though.

The quarterback got down from the table and strutted back to his spot next to Paulina. "Never thought I'd ever say this, but... thanks, Dash." Danny said. "Now let's put that teamwork into action. No matter what happens, we'll stick to this plan I'm about to present. Agreed?"

A cheer rose up from the crowd. Danny smiled. "So I was thinking. The peacekeepers roam the streets at timely intervals. Every day at seven P.M., they pass by this place. At seven P.M., we'll attack them. They won't see it coming. Suggestions for strategy?"

"I have one," Sam said.

Danny nodded for her to take front stage. "Shoot."

"We need a decoy," the Goth declared, stepping to the mainfront of the table. "These peacekeepers aren't going to be expecting an armed force, they're just expecting another group of teens taunting them and throwing garbage at them. I say two Freedom Fighters should mess with them as they usually would, namely _John Merrit and Ivan Tenn,"_ she emphasized.

The two boys exchanged glances, then pumped fists.

Sam continued to speak. "You two should distract the peacekeepers while another group attacks from behind. Any volunteers for the attack group?"

Bill Jackson, Dash Baxter, Kwan Chang, "Carrots" Morgan, Dawn Merrit, Tucker Foley, Danny Fenton and Michael Amber raised their hands. Sam nodded. "Good. I'll fight with the attack party as well."

"Great plan, Sam," Danny complimented his best friend. "Now, here's what we're going to do..."

()...()...()...()

A fist, an open palm, and a point- the symbols for "attack", "time", and "go". In essence, Danny had just signaled to the decoys that it was time to attack. John and Ivan nodded and ran around to the other side of FentonWorks to do their dirty work. They would meet the peacekeepers from the front while the attack team retreated to the back until Danny gave the attack signal to the rest of the team.

Five peacekeepers were approaching in a troop towards the Fighters' location, unknowingly walking into danger. "Man, I bet those kids are gonna start pickin' on us again," one said to his comrade.

That man laughed mockingly. "It's not like they've ever hurt anyone. You scared?"

"Of course not!" the first peacekeeper spat back. "They're just a few little kids throwin' garbage and insults at us! Even Carpathan knows they're not a threat."

Danny smirked. How wrong this "Carpathan" guy was.

"'Carpathan'... I'll bet that's the mayor's name," Tucker whispered to Danny.

Something gripped Danny's heart and made his stomach flip. _Carpathan..._ the name seemed to fit that malicious smirk. The teen nodded in grave agreement with his friend.

Meanwhile, John and Ivan decided it was time to mess with the peacekeepers. John wolf-whistled. "Yo, peacekeepers!" he exclaimed. Ivan threw an apple core at them.

"Ah, beat it, kids!" another peacekeeper sneered.

"Beat it? Beat what? Your faces?" John mocked. The two boys snickered.

"We ain't scared of you, ya know!" the first peacekeeper to speak before exclaimed. "You're just pests!"

Ivan stepped out from behind the house and stuck his tongue out, thumbs in his ears. John came out behind him, a smirk on his face. "I know you all are, but what are we?"

Danny gave the attack signal, and the team moved silently forward. They all began to quietly file out onto the sidewalk behind Danny.

Another peacekeeper huffed. "You don't know what you- You're cowards!"

"We're not cowards," Ivan said smartly.

"We're Freedom Fighters!" Danny shouted. The Freedom Fighters sounded a battlecry and ran towards the peacekeeper force. Some held rocks and some held sticks, while others simply ran with their fists raised.

The peacekeepers were too surprised to react correctly. One of them yelped and took off down the street. Carrots, Bill, and Michael ran after him. "Get back here!" another exclaimed before getting socked in the jaw by Dash.

"Oh, yeah!" the blonde jock exclaimed. He kicked the guy down.

Dawn threw a rock at one of the peacekeepers, who ducked. He then shouted and ran to charge Dawn, but her brother John tackled him to the ground.

Meanwhile, the other two peacekeepers circled in on Danny and Sam. The two teens backed into each other's backs. "I've got your back, Sam," whispered Danny, smirking.

Sam smirked back at him. "Funny, I thought I had yours." In perfect sync, the two leaped at the peacekeepers and attacked with fists and feet. Danny was thankful that his mother had taught him some fighting moves; they were really coming in handy. Tucker and Kwan helped back them up, taking the final blows for them.

"Get us out of here!" the peacekeeper who had been stricken by Dash exclaimed. He wiped away a stream of blood that was dripping from the corner of his mouth. All the Fighters released their fights with the peacekeepers and let them run free after their escaping comrades.

John raised a fist in victory. "Yeah! So long, _suckers!_"

Dawn tapped her brother on the shoulder. "I don't think they'll be gone forever," the girl warned, eyes distant.

Danny frowned as the bitter reality hit him once more. He looked down and shoved his hands into his pockets, then turned and headed for the front door of his house and entered. Sam noticed her friend's odd moodswing. She tapped Tucker on the shoulder and pointed at the open door. Her brow was creased with worry, and so was Tucker's. The two teenagers hurried inside after Danny. The boy was standing there, his hands deep in his pockets and his head bowed low.

"Danny, are you all right?" Sam inquired, coming closer to her friend.

"Do I _look_ all right?" Danny asked sadly.

"Come on, man," Tucker encouraged, "You just fought your first battle with that moldy-faced mayor... and won! There's no need to be down."

"I'm not upset about the battle," Danny replied cryptically. He was thinking about the safety of the Freedom Fighters. Could he really protect them now that they had made their uprising known? What would happen to his team now?

"Don't tell me you're still thinking about Jazz," Tucker said.

Danny flinched. "I can't forget about her, Tuck. I _can't,_" he said. "But I'm actually kind of worried about the team. I want to help them succeeed, but..."

"Feeling the pressure of being a leader, huh, Fenton?" Dash asked, walking through the front door.

Danny would have yelled at Dash for walking in on a private conversation, but the battle had knocked all the fight out of him for the time being. Instead, he looked up at the jock. "I guess you could say that," he said sadly.

"Danny," Sam addressed her friend. Danny looked up at her. Sam continued, "The Freedom Fighters... they can handle themselves. You don't have to do this alone. Tucker and I will always be here for you... and maybe, under some circumstances, Dash might be, too."

Danny smiled. "You guys are _amazing_," he declared.

"You're not so bad yourself, Fenton," Dash admitted with a small, un-Dashlike smile.

Danny stood up straighter and tightened his headband. With his friends and team by his side, he could accomplish _anything..._ including a rescue mission for his parents.

()...()...()...()

**I hope you liked this chapter. :) It was fun and fairly easy to write. Now if I could get myself to write some more on chapter 5, you should expect it by late April. But I make no promises. (I may be too into listening to Skillet by late April! THEY'RE COMING OUT WITH A NEW SINGLE LATE APRIL! I'm such a crazy panhead. XD)**

**This battle scene is NOTHING like later battles. They met literally no resistance from these guys, but Mayor Carpathan (That's his name, by the way) is about to turn the heat up!**

**Please review! ^^ (Fanart is appreciated, too! XD I never get fanart because of how little people read my stuff...) But to help my cause, PLEASE share this with your friends who you think may be interested in this! I love reading and replying to reviews! Speaking of review replies...**

**Anonymous Review Replies!**

**-I know there were some guest reviews that didn't show up here... I don't know why that is, honestly. FanFiction is being weird. But one DID appear, so here it is:**

**Jenny Phantom: Thanks! ^^ I'm glad you like it, because I spent a lot of time on just these four chapters. Since this "Frontlines" project in its entirety is a trilogy, I'm trying to stretch out events over a long period of time. "Frontlines" itself lasts several months. So... it'll be a while before Danny gets his ghost powers. Like... next book. XD But it's a guarantee: Danny WILL get ghost powers!**

**Oh, and Wolf, if you're reading this, I don't know what happened to your review... it may show up later, but try to retype it best you can. :) I always like your feedback on things.**


	6. Chapter 5: To Squash a Bug

**Chapter 5! Wow. Would you believe we're over halfway done with this story? Well... let me rephrase that. We're over halfway done with this particular installment of the trilogy. The story's got so much more ahead of it that may gain readers or lose them. Lots of emotion and action to go around, that's for sure. XD We ain't even at the climax, yet! Woot. I said "ain't".**

**Please remember to read and review! Thanks ^^**

**Frontlines: Chapter 5- To Squash a Bug**

The five peacekeepers stumbled into Mayor Carpathan's office, panting. "Mr. Carpathan, sir," one man who had a black eye said, bowing.

Carpathan raised an eyebrow, observing the bad condition of his men. "Gentlemen, how is it that you have come to me looking like this?" he asked. "Kylos, you tell me."

Kylos, who had the black eye, gulped. "We were attacked by those kids who've been messing around with our patrols this week. They caught us by surprise. If they hadn't, we would have won easily."

"Then it seems as if these teenagers are actually a threat," the mayor concluded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "If dirty is the way they want to play with me, then so be it. In light of the situation, we must do something about them."

"Like what?" Kylos asked.

"Call the peacekeeping forces into my conference room. We shall speak further on this topic once assembled."

"Yes, sir." The peacekeepers all turned to leave, but Carpathan stopped them.

"One more question," the mayor called. The peacekeepers turned around again. "Where were you attacked?"

"Outside of the old FentonWorks building."

Carpathan narrowed his eyes. "You may leave," he commanded. After the patrol had left his office and shut his door, Carpathan leaned forward in his desk, his fingers steepled. His brow was creased with worry and frustration. "I fear I was wrong to leave Daniel alive," he said aloud. "It seems he has raised a force strong enough to take on five peacekeepers... maybe more."

_"How do you know young Daniel is the cause?"_ a raspy voice asked from nowhere.

"We arrested his parents. Killed his sister. I had thought he would try to attempt to get revenge, but I never thought of a possible team rising from his ashes. And a formidable one, at that."

_"I just want to get home."_

Mayor Carpathan smirked. "Don't worry about getting home, my ghostly friend. Remember our deal. When this town is entirely subdued, meaning when you and I crush Daniel's little rebellion, I will begin working on a way to get you home." He stood up from his desk. "It's all a matter of _timing."_

_"Thank you, good Carpathan,"_ the ghost rasped.

Carpathan headed out the door to his conference room.

,.~*~.,

"Gentlemen," Carpathan began. But his accented voice was run over by a thousand other voices. The mayor struggled and struggled to get their attention until he had finally had enough. He stood up and banged his fist down on the table. "GENTLEMEN!" he shouted.

A sudden silence filled the room. Carpathan calmed himself instantly and sat down in his chair once more. "Welcome to this very important meeting, peacekeepers," he said.

"What are we here for?" sighed one stout man, tapping his fingers on the table in impatience.

The mayor folded his hands and leaned forward. "We are here to discuss how we are to squash a bug."

"Figuratively speaking, I assume," Kylos said, more aimed at the others.

"Very much so, Kylos, and yet the phrase is still quite literal."

The men began to mutter amongst themselves and give each other confused glances.

"These bothersome teenagers have finally lashed out and attacked a band of peacekeepers. They may become out of control if _something_ is not done about them," Carpathan said, eying each peacekeeper darkly as he spoke.

"What'll we do about 'em, sir?" asked a young man.

"Give them Daniel's fate. The boy may have raised an army, but without proper care, shelter, food and water, his team will _crumble."_

"But how do we know which houses to attack? the stout peacekeeper asked.

"All houses in which a Casper High student lives," Carpathan ordered. "Break in, kill the parents and the student's siblings who do not go to the school. It will be a cruel reminder to them that they _cannot_ and _will not_ rise up against me alone." He sat up straighter in his chair as the dark moment in his speech passed. "No doubt the group some of you met on the streets this evening are only a very small percentage of the group. Now, I want all of you peacekeepers to go out and make a _mess_ of Casper High homes. Understand?"

The peacekeepers nodded in agreement, though some of their faces were apprehensive. It was usually Carpathan's personal bodyguard army that did the specialized killing, or sometimes even he himself. At least, that was what happened the last time.

"Good," Carpathan said, satisfied. "Now after that is done with, we must deal with the leader. If the leader is weakened, then the whole team will fall apart. In this case, fall apart further than it already has."

"Who is the leader?" one peacekeeper asked.

"I believe him to be Daniel Fenton," Carpathan said.

"Fenton?" the peacekeeper asked. He sounded slightly interested and amused. A little arrogant, even.

"You know the name?" asked Carpathan, turning to look at the peacekeeper.

"Know the _name?"_ the peacekeeper, a man in his mid-forties with long silvery hair tied into a ponytail, replied. He smirked. "I know the people _behind_ the name."

"So you know Daniel?" the mayor asked.

"Not Daniel. I know his parents, Maddie and... _Jack_." He half-spat the name.

"What is your name, peacekeeper?" Carpathan was interested in this man. A man with a close tie to the family could be a very useful pawn in this game.

"Masters. Vlad Masters."

"Well, Masters, I may just have to promote you," said Carpathan, his cerulean eyes sparkling darkly. A smirk graced his lips. "What do you know about a ghost portal?"

"It was something Jack Fenton was always _obsessed_ with building throughout his whole life," Masters said, his tone bitter. "I tried to tell him his efforts were useless. But, of course, the baffoon wouldn't listen to me, and I ended up in the hospital for _years_ because of it!"

"The Fentons you know are in our prison if you wish to see them, Masters," Carpathan said, the smirk becoming a wicked grin.

Oddly, Masters returned the grin with an equally wicked smirk. "Yes. As a matter of fact I _would_ like to see them."

"Then I shall take you to them after we dismiss." Carpathan stood up and looked around at all his peacekeepers. "Gentlemen! Your fellow peacekeeper, Vlad Masters, is now officially promoted to Commander. This means that you will all report to _him_. He gets his word directly from me. Is that clear?"

"It is, sir," the peacekeepers shouted in unison.

Carpathan nodded. "All right, gentlemen. Dismissed. All except you, Masters."

,.~*~.,

"Go in and inform them of the power you have in their lives now," Carpathan commanded Masters. The two men were outside the prison, and Carpathan was giving Masters his instructions for talking to the Fentons. "Let them know that I'm willing to let them out sooner if they cooperate with me unconditionally."

Masters nodded to the mayor and went inside. The prison guards had been ordered to let peacekeepers get in and out of the jailhouse- no questions asked. Therefore, Masters got through the prison doors very quickly, and without any trouble. The Fentons were locked away in some sort of special solitary confinement. Masters pulled out the key to the door and unlocked it.

Jack, who was sitting on a bench in the room, looked up and grinned. "Vladdy! Come to bail us out?" The huge man jumped up and tackled Masters in a very tight, very unwanted bear hug.

Maddie eyed Masters suspiciously, though her expression was not unpleasant. It was more surprised than anything. "Vlad? What are you doing in Amity Park?"

"_Not_ to bail you out," Masters growled, extracting himself from Jack Fenton's iron grip of a hug.

"I thought you were in Wisconsin!" Maddie exclaimed, sounding a little surprised. She was honestly not sure why her old college friend had just showed up in Amity Park and was visiting her and Jack in jail.

"Well, duty calls," Masters said, turning a flirtatious eye toward Maddie.

Maddie wasn't sure whether that statement had a double meaning or not...

"Oh, for sure, Maddie, I'd bail you out if I could," Masters said. "But more important things are in the way of that happening."

"Just what exactly do you mean by that?" questioned Maddie.

"I'm afraid to say that I'm working for Mayor Carpathan," Masters said. "_He_ wants me to tell you that I'm in charge of you from now on. I will see that you do whatever he says." Masters smirked longingly at Maddie. "I hope it's not too much to ask for your cooperation."

"Look, Vlad," Maddie started off with an edge to her voice, "Mayor Carpathan is nothing but a lying, murdering beast to me! And for you to even _suggest- "_

"Of course we'll cooperate, V-man!" The man slapped Masters' back.

"OH! Jack!" Masters snapped. He then regained his composure in an instant. "Well, it seems your cooperation has been given. Expect to be out of prison for a meeting in two days." He winked at Maddie. "Maybe next time, dear?" He turned and started to leave.

"Vlad, hold on a minute!" Maddie yelled. "I never- "

The door shut and locked, leaving Maddie frozen in the middle of her sentence. She turned to Jack, who looked bewildered. "Jack, do you think Vlad is acting kind of... odd?" she asked.

Jack furrowed his brow in confusion. "Yeah. He didn't even say goodbye!"

,.~*~.,

Masters walked out of the jail to find Carpathan greeting him with a warm smile. "Well?" the mayor asked.

"We have their cooperation," Masters reported.

"Good. The other peacekeepers are progressing well on the mission, from the sound of it." Carpathan stepped next to Masters and pointed out into the street. "Listen closely," he said. Faint, terrified screams and weapon fire sounded from the suburban areas of Amity Park. "That is the sound of victory, Masters," Carpathan hissed into the commander's ear, a deadly smirk on his face. "Daniel cannot stand up to me if his team cannot."

Masters swallowed. The ruthless darkness that fueled Carpathan was the very reason he had accepted the invitation to become a peacekeeper. He had, in fact, seen this darkness the moment he and the mayor first met. It was in this way Masters and Carpathan were alike. Masters wasn't as ruthless and cold as Carpathan could be, but they both held something cold and deadly inside them. Both kept it on a harness most of the time. Carpathan's was far more obvious, however, whereas Vlad kept his contained when around the mayor. It was for the best.

,.~*~.,

Danny heard banging on the front door, startling him from his sleep. He caught traces of voices as well, hearing things such as "dismantle the ghost portal" or "get it to work". He thought they were just memories of his parents resurfacing in his head, but as he slowly regained his sense of mind, he realized they were not his parents' voices. Then it hit him: Those _had_ to be the voices of peacekeepers! And they were _inside_ his house!

Realizing this, Danny shot up in bed. He didn't dare hurry out of the bed, though. The invading peacekeepers might hear him. The teen felt around on his head for his headband, then tightened it. He took deep breaths. "You're not a coward any more, Fenton," he told himself, slowly slinking out of bed and hopping into his shoes. "You can fight if you have to." He grabbed a baseball bat that was lying on his floor just for a moment like this, then slowly opened his door. He took special care to keep it from creaking.

There was nobody on the upstairs floor, so Danny crept out of his room and started down the stairs, avoiding the step he knew creaked every time anyone stepped on it. His eyes were peeled for the faintest sign of danger, but the downstairs was peacekeeper-free as well. The voices were coming from below him, suggesting most or all of them were in the lab. But his heart was beating so loudly now, he feared that the peacekeepers would hear him despite his efforts to keep quiet. This notion was fueled by the blood that rapidly pulsed in Danny's ears. He could hear every heartbeat.

He swallowed a rising lump in his throat, clutching the baseball bat tightly with both hands. He heard voices from outside his house- probably belonging to peacekeepers set there to guard the door, doubtlessly there to keep intruders from interrupting their work. Danny breathed in deeply and sneaked into the kitchen, hoping to grab a few utensils useful for fighting. He opened a drawer and, to his great relief, found several steak and cooking knives. He collected a bunch of them before hurrying back up to his room. He tossed the knives into his school backpack and pulled it onto his back. Since he was leaving FentonWorks for good, he might as well be prepared for a fight. Or, worse yet, a full-blown war.

As he approached his front door for the last time ever, Danny felt his confidence return. Bat in hand, the raven-haired teenager opened the door and hid himself behind it. With any luck, he could frighten the peacekeepers away with their own fear or lure them inside for a quick escape. He may not even need the bat.

"Hey... the door just opened... by itself!" one peacekeeper gasped.

"Well, these Fentons _were_ obsessed with ghosts," another whispered.

Danny tensed up. _Were?_ Did that mean they were dead now?

"Probably still are," a third said with a snort. "Only they can't _do_ anything about it in that prison cell."

Danny released the breath he didn't know he was holding. They were still alive, but why? Why did Carpathan keep them alive? Maybe it was because they cooperated with him, turned themselves in, and had their lives spared because of it.

"I say we check it out," the third peacekeeper said. He stepped inside the house.

Knowing this was his only chance of escape, Danny braced himself and waited for the peacekeeper to pass him by. But he never did. Upon seeing nothing in front of him, the man turned and looked behind the door. He saw Danny's frightened blue eyes staring back at him, but not the bat clenched tightly in the boy's sweaty hands.

"There you are, ghost boy," the bald peacekeeper growled, reaching for the teen. His hands never touched Danny, though. Out of reflex, the boy smacked the peacekeeper in the knuckles with his baseball bat. The man exclaimed in pain and retreated his hands rather swiftly. Next, Danny smashed the bat into the side of the peacekeeper's skull using all his strength, which was, by the way, extremely forceful due to the amount of excess adrenaline in Danny's blood.

The man stumbled back, his eyes scrunched up in pain and teeth clenched tightly. He was seemingly in too much pain to cry out. "Barnes!" shouted another peacekeeper, running inside.

"Kirk, no! Come back!" the remaining peacekeeper outside exclaimed. But he didn't dare come inside. Seeing his chance, Danny swung the bat straight into Kirk's face as he was passing by, knocking him down onto his back. Panicked, the peacekeeper sat up, gagged, and coughed out a tooth. Then he spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva.

Danny rushed out of the house, passing right by the peacekeeper at the door. "Ghost!" the man yelled, then dashed back into the house and ran for the lab.

Danny kept on running, afraid that the other peacekeepers would chase after him. One at a time he could take them, but a whole group of them could take him down easily without help. And now that his sense of humanity had returned, he began to feel guilty for taking out those two peacekeepers. _This is war, and you acted in self-defense after all,_ he told himself, breathing heavily. The thought calmed him down considerably, but the fear was still there.

His legs were already feeling like lead cylinders, and his chest was heaving with every step. Despite the pain, he kept on running until he found an alley. Pushing himself a few more bounds forward, the teen turned into the alley and hid behind what seemed to be a dumpster. He took deep breaths, holding his chest with one hand. His heart was pounding so loudly now that he _knew_ any pursuing peacekeepers would find him. He sunk to the ground, trying to regain his lost breath. If his heartbeat didn't give him away, his breathing surely would.

But as seconds turned to minutes and minutes became an hour, it became apparent that Danny was not being chased. He had finally relaxed himself enough to really think. He could never return to FentonWorks, that was certain. Since he couldn't return, neither could the team. They were ruined- and quite possibly totally annihilated. But he'd worry more about that tomorrow. Sleep was claiming Danny's body once more, for his dash had exhausted him beyond belief.

He was asleep the second he shut his eyes.

,.~*~.,

**WHEWF! Finally done! Earlier than expected, no? ^^ Well, I had to write fast. I'm doing this story for Camp NaNoWriMo...**

**Next chapter will be the introduction of the REALLY bad stuff... and it's VERY, VERY LONG. I have a headstart on it, though! :D Hope you enjoyed this, and hope you're ready for the REAL MEAT of the story. Yup. First five chapters all lead up to the next chapter, which sets up a lot of everything else...**

**Oh, and... Happy Ninth Danniversary! ^^ April 3rd update!**


	7. Chapter 6 PART 1: Mental Wounds

**Chapter 6 was so long I had to split it in two! XD The official chapter name will be "Wounds", cut into two parts, of course. This first part being "Mental Wounds" and the next part being "Battle Wounds". I'll try to get part 2 up as quickly as possible. :P Depending on how quickly I write.**

**WARNING: Bloody chapter! D:**

**Chapter 6- PART 1: (Mental) Wounds**

Danny woke up. He was a little cold, a little wet, and a little sore, too. His head and back were leaning up against a blue dumpster and his legs were spread out on the concrete below him. Above his head was a bright blue sky. Waking up in the alley he had fallen asleep in reminded Danny that his run that previous night wasn't a nightmare. It was all real. Not only was he an orphan, but he was now homeless as well.

It was all thanks to Carpathan's rule, no doubt. His peacekeepers had been swarming FentonWorks' lab last Danny knew. The house was probably being turned into a peacekeeper retreat center, Danny mused dryly. Although he didn't know what was going on with Carpathan and the ghost portal, he _did_ know that FentonWorks was no longer a safe place to meet.

The teen stood up and stretched his sore limbs, then walked out from the alley. When he had made his run, his mind was groggy and he was surrounded by darkness. Thus, Danny needed to get a good idea of where he was. He was a good distance from FentonWorks (Now wryly nicknamed "CarpathanDoesn'tWork" by Danny), but he could still see the house, and the peacekeepers that guarded it, in the distance. They didn't seem to notice the teen was there. Cautious nonetheless, Danny silently retreated back into the alley.

The alley was well-shaded from the bright sun, which made the concrete reflect painfully onto his eyes. It also had a dead end, and of course, a big blue dumpster. The dumpster emanated a bit of a stench, and a banana peel stuck out from underneath the lid. Danny wrinkled his nose at it. There was nothing more offensive to his nose than a stinky, blackened banana peel. Well, sour milk and the Ham were worse, come to think of it.

Now a banana he could go for, and maybe with some fresh, juicy ham and a glass of cold milk. He imagined himself eating that for breakfast, but his growling stomach ripped him out of his imagination and back into reality. He hadn't eaten anything since noon of that previous day. Danny looked at the dumpster for a few seconds, then laughed at himself. To even _consider_ dumpster-diving... no, he wasn't _that_ hungry. He just decided to look around until he found something worth eating.

The boy wandered about the streets of Amity Park, looking for something edible that _wasn't_ sitting in a garbage bin. He searched all morning, but he had no luck. Danny leaned against a brick building and hugged his abdomen. He groaned in frustration and hunger, thinking back to that banana peel he'd found back at the alley. _No. There's no way I'm hungry enough to eat that,_ he thought.

But as afternoon faded into evening, the banana peel grew more and more appetizing. Not only had Danny succeeded in not finding anything worth eating, but he hadn't seen a single Freedom Fighter since that previous day. Actually, he hadn't seen _anyone_ out today. The streets were void. Not even a single peacekeeper roamend the streets. _Odd,_ Danny thought. He had been so caught up in trying to find food that he hadn't noticed the abscence of people. Was he alone?

Hunger distracted him from his thoughts once again. _I may just eat leaves like Sam was going to do,_ he thought. Wait, Sam! Where was Sam? Her house... she had to be at her house. Danny broke out into a run. He wasn't that far from Sam's house at all, and he had barely broken a sweat when he arrived.

He walked up the stairs to his friend's front door. Suddenly, a sense of doom struck him like lightning. Was Sam hurt? _Dead?_ The thought of his best friend being... _dead..._ chilled Danny to the bone, causing him to shiver despite the warm spring air. He knocked on the door and called Sam's name. There was no answer. He knocked again and again, his thirst-enduced hoarse voice growing desperate. His knocks grew louder and harder.

Suddenly the door flew open, and Danny found himself staring down a gun barrel. "Sam?" he squeaked.

The gunholder gasped. "Danny!" Sam exclaimed. She tossed down the weapon and immediately threw her arms around Danny.

The boy, though shocked, returned the hug with equal enthusiasm. Danny laughed, overjoyed. "I thought you were dead!"

"I thought _you_ were dead, too!" Sam said, excited. The two broke the hug and looked at each other, grinning. "I meant to visit you early this morning, but all I saw were swarms of peacekeepers at your house."

"Well, I ran away late last night and woke up in an alley this morning," Danny told her. "I've spent all day looking for food, but..." His stomach rumbled. "Let's just say I didn't have any luck."

"I've got food in here, but I don't think you want to see what's in my kitchen." Sam's expression was no less than disturbed. And Sam was _never_ disturbed.

"I'll handle it," Danny said, despite the fact he believed he _knew_ what he would see when he went inside. He gave Sam a grim half-smile before his eyes fell to the ground, the smile with it.

"Come on, then," Sam said, her voice low. She picked up her gun and led Danny inside.

The salty, bitter, tangy scent of blood entered Danny's nostrils. He choked at the thickness of the stench, and almost vomited. Swallowing the bile rising in his throat, the teen forced himself to look up. No amount of gory horror movies could have prepared him for what he saw. The bile rose up again.

Mrs. Manson was lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood. Her dress and hair were stained a dark reddish-brown from dried blood, but an open wound on her head was still a bright red on the inside. Judging by the sheer amount of the crusty brown stuff, Danny realized with a jolt- she had bled there, alive, for a _long_ time. A much fresher wound cut right through her chest to her heart.

Mr. Manson was in a dining room chair, slumped over as if he was asleep. A small puddle of dried blood was underneath him on the once pristine kitchen floor, and more had to be on the table.

Sam's white-haired grandmother sat in her wheelchair like usual, but she was limp and her expression was one of shock. Her expression was just frozen there like a wax figurine or some grotesque puppet. Aside from a little trickle of blood from her lip, the old woman had no obvious wounds.

"Who did this?" Danny's tone was unusually dark.

"Peacekeepers," Sam whispered. "He didn't do it himself."

"But the peacekeepers... he sent them," Danny muttered angrily. "You know he did." The teen slunk off down the stairs. "He makes me _sick!"_

Sam shoved the gun into the belt she had added to her outfit, grabbed a loaf of bread, and headed after her friend. She found him sulking on a chair downstairs. "I don't like him any more than you do, Danny," Sam said, sitting down in the chair next to him.

"But you... you let them kill your family," Danny said, his voice quiet but tense.

"You think I did?" asked Sam. "You know me better than that." Danny refused to meet her eyes. Sam huffed and pulled out the gun from her belt. "How do you think I got this gun?"

Danny looked at the weapon. "I... assumed your parents kept one around?" he said, disgust still apparent in his baby blue eyes.

Sam shook her head. "After the one who shot my grandma did his business, I was right in the position to kick him for what it's worth and take his gun. But the other peacekeepers were quick. My dad was dead already and my mom was alive but dying on the floor. I shot after them when they ran out the door, but I didn't hit anyone."

Danny looked into Sam's amethyst eyes. "And you just let your mom suffer..." he growled, stating the question as more of a fact.

"I thought there was hope of saving her, but after a while of trying to help her, she asked me to kill her." Sam wiped a tear from her eye, emotion beginning to taint her voice. "I refused. She gave me the mom look and told me to do it again." She sniffled.

The look of disgust in Danny's eyes started to perish. "And then?" he asked.

"I told her no! She pulled my wrist and the gunpoint to her heart with her hand, told me to pull the trigger and... and..." Sam shut up, her voice too full of emotion to continue.

Danny softened up completely when he saw Sam- his strong, fearless best friend- breaking down and crying. He got up and knelt down next to her. "Sam, no... look, I'm sorry I thought you were being cruel and heartless. You know me. I'm stupid and impulsive sometimes."

Sam looked at Danny, tears still streaming down her face. A tiny smile quirked at her purple lips. "Sometimes?" she asked in a nasal voice.

"OK, stupid and impulsive," Danny caved. "You know Sam, you don't look right with tears on your face." He smiled and stood up. "I know you better than that."

"I was trying to be strong for you," Sam said, wiping the wet streams off her face. "It's me who should be sorry for your thoughts. Sorry if I seemed indifferent."

"Nah. I forgave you already. No need to apologize." Danny helped her from her chair.

The girl sniffed one last time and wiped her hands on her skirt. "Thanks, Danny," she said.

"You're always welcome," her best friend said with a smile. A forgiving smile.

Sam wanted to give Danny a hug, but she decided she'd shown enough dependence for the time being. So she changed the subject instead. "Hey, um... I brought you something to eat," she said, holding up the loaf of bread.

It was as if Danny suddenly remembered he was hungry. "Oh! Cool. Thanks, Sam," he said, eagerly taking the loaf. He sat down on the floor and patted the ground in front of him.

Sam sat down as Danny opened the loaf of bread and dug in. He shoved a piece of bread into his mouth and held up a finger. Sam knew he wanted to tell her something, and waited for him to swallow. After choking down the slice, he got down to business. "We need to set up some rules for this team, ASAP," he said, taking another slice of bread and eating it.

"Shouldn't we get Tucker for this?" Sam inquired.

Danny paused his chewing. "You're right, as usual," he mumbled. "Wouldn't wanna start without him." The teen stood up, followed by Sam. Danny motioned for his friend to go on ahead of him. She complied and headed for the stairs. Danny tightened his headband and started after her, munching on another piece of bread.

As the two passed through the kitchen to the front door, Danny sealed his nose. He hated the sight of death as well as the smell of it, so he concentrated his gaze on Sam and ignored the bodies. When they left the house, Danny released a long breath. "Tell me we're not going back there again," the raven-haired boy said, relieved to get out of the house.

"Oh, yeah," Sam said. "I never want to see this place again."

The two friends walked alone on the eerily empty streets, making their way to Tucker's house. They talked and ate bread until they reached their friend's home. They entered the house and saw Tucker sitting on his living room floor, messing around with some wires on the floor. He had on a headset, which was connected to his phone, which was being hooked up to a plug in the wall. He was so concentrated in his work that he didn't seem to notice his friends entering.

Danny approached Tucker and stood next to him. "So they spared you, too?" he asked.

Tucker jumped, then turned around to see his best friends looking down at him. "Danny! Sam! Thank goodness!" The boy threw off the headset and gave both of his friends a brief but glad hug. His smile was sincere but grim.

"Your parents are gone, aren't they, Tucker?" Sam asked.

Tucker just nodded, averting his eyes. "Yours too, huh?" The other teens nodded. "Well, I'm afraid we're not alone. Come check this out." Tucker picked up his cell phone from the floor and showed it to his friends. "Using the phone numbers I collected from the Freedom Fighters, I was able to create a system of communication from here to everyone else, and vice-versa. I got _tons_ of calls from people who lost their families to peacekeeping forces! This whole massacre is that mayor's way of telling us he has all the power."

"I knew it," Danny growled. "I knew it all along."

"This isn't gonna stop us, is it, Danny?" Tucker asked, a twinkle of hope in his sad jade-colored eyes.

"No. It'll only make us fight harder," Danny said. He was determined and decidedly angry. "We've got to show the team we won't let this kill us. We _can't._ Ever. Come on guys; we've got some rules to make."

_Stupid Fenton. You couldn't protect their families, you big failure. What good are you at making rules?_ Danny, though he disguised his feelings with a mask of confidence, still bashed himself for everything on the inside. This whole event of the Massacre of Families had only made him feel all the more guilty. Underneath that mask, he was swimming in his fear and guilt. Just a scared kid, nothing more.

The three sat in a circle on Tucker's living room floor. "OK, we need three basic rules to help this team really work. There are three of us," Danny explained. "What do you suggest, Tuck?"

"I suggest you share some of that bread with me," Tucker said, eying the half-eaten loaf of bread in Danny's hands. Danny alone had eaten most of it by himself, but had shared several slices with Sam. It would only be fair to share some with Tucker, too.

"Here," Danny said, tossing his friend five slices of bread. "Which gives me an idea." He smiled. "We'll all have to share our food supplies with each other. Even if food is scarce, we'll have to make sure everyone is fed." He sealed the plastic bag that the loaf was in and set it aside.

"And gluttony is starvation," Sam added. "Rule number two: Eating until you're full in plentiful times means no food for hungry times when they come. Just eat enough to keep yourself going for another day or so. Same with water."

"That's a good one," Danny commented. "Not only should we support each other with food, but we should defend each other on the battlefield, too." The teen was remembering his first battle with the peacekeepers, in which he and Sam had each other's backs, and when John had willingly run to Dawn's rescue. "A partner effort will improve performance."

"So we've got our basic rules. Great," said Sam.

"Tucker, call up the Fighters," Danny ordered, standing up. "There's a meeting in the warehouse by the old Nasty Burger's location tonight."

,.~*~.,

The old Nasty Burger was nothing but an empty lot now, and located in the part of Amity Park that nobody visited any more. It was no wonder that the small, oddly-named restaurant moved to the "nicer" area of town. As to why the actual building was torn down was a mystery. There was a large, run-down warehouse right next to the vacant lot, in which Danny had ordered the Freedom Fighters to meet.

Several entered at a time, carrying large quantities of water bottles and non-refrigerated foods. They set them down in the corner of the warehouse, then congregated in front of a large stack of crates. Danny sat upon the stack of crates, which reached much higher than the kitchen table did. This made the young leader easier to see.

More downtrodden Fighters arrived carrying bundles of food and water; some teens arriving carried food, but weren't part of the team. Others arrived empty-handed. The other teens must have seen the Freedom Fighters heading for the warehouse with food and followed them there. When everyone had arrived, there were approximately twice the amount of teens as was in the group before. Now there were approximately seventy teenagers looking up at Danny, Sam and Tucker.

_Good thing this is a big warehouse,_ Danny thought.

"We can't take them all in as Freedom Fighters," Sam whispered to her two male friends. "There won't be enough resources to go around."

"Lighten up, Sam," Tucker told her in reply. "They're orphans now, just like the rest of us. Who else can support them? We should at least give them a chance."

Danny saw the oncoming argument and jumped in to prevent infighting right away. "You're both absolutely right."

Sam and Tucker stared at him. "We are?" they asked in unison.

"Yeah," Danny replied, becoming more confident with his answer. "True, we can't afford to add so many new people, but where else can they go? They're in the same boat as we are. Who knows?" Danny turned his head toward the crowd. "Maybe the expanse will help us instead of harm us."

Danny stood upon the crates and waved his hands. "Freedom Fighters and visitors! We need you all to listen!" he yelled above the noise. When the Fighters hushed, the other teens knew to listen. They all turned their hopeful eyes to Danny. "I... don't need to explain why we're gathered here, do I?" Everyone shook his head. "About half of you already know who we are. I'm Danny Fenton, and these are my co-leaders, Sam Manson and Tucker Foley. We lead the Freedom Fighters in a war against the man who sent those peacekeepers to murder your families."

The reaction from the crowd was enormous. Teens muttered and cried out for revenge.

"I know you're all angry and upset!" Danny yelled, taking back the attention of the teens. "Frankly, I'm furious. But we can't just jump in and start killing people! There's got to be a plan and some rules."

"Danny, all my little siblings are dead!" a new teen said, emotion ringing in his voice. "I will fight with your team!"

Danny acknowledged him with a grave nod.

"My sister, a Freedom Fighter, is dead," John said, looking sick and angry.

"Dawn," Tucker breathed. Danny remembered the quiet girl with brown hair and aquamarine eyes. She was John's support and pacifier for his extremely short temper.

"A dead Freedom Fighter," Danny said, bowing his head. There was silence for a minute as everyone, including the new teens, bowed their heads and acknowledged the dead Fighter's life.

When Danny looked up again, he noticed that Carrots- or Brent, as was his name- had a younger boy clinging to him, obviously not a teenager yet. He looked relatively shaken in his ruffled-up green jacket, unkempt golden-brownish hair and smudged glasses, and yet oddly calm next to the tall redhead. "Brent," Danny addressed him, "Who's that guy with you?"

"Oh, him?" Brent looked up and pointed to the younger boy. "This is my little brother, Chris. He escaped the Massacre. I found him hiding in a closet an hour later." Chris looked up, his hazel eyes sad but shining. "He's only 12, but he'd make a great addition to the team. He'd be a help for your technology guy."

Danny nodded. "He knows stuff?"

"Lots of stuff." Brent patted his little brother on the back.

"He'll be a good addition nonetheless," Danny concluded. He looked around at all the teens. "Seeing how many are here, I think it's safe to say we should set up some rules."

"Rules? But we break rules!" one Fighter shouted.

"We break the _mayor's_ rules," Sam cut in. "A team _needs_ rules, or else it will fall apart."

"Good point," said a boy.

"It's true," Kwan agreed. "If it weren't for game rules, we'd get clobbered all the time."

"Likewise with us," Danny added. "We can't let ourselves get defeated by this tragedy!" Teens looked up as his voice began to grow stronger. "From now on death will be used as a strength! Unite, Freedom Fighters! Unite and fight!" He calmed his voice down and began to speak in a level tone. "Here's the first rule: Watch each other's backs! Pick a fighting partner now, those of you who choose to stay and fight. This person whom you choose will be the one whom you will dedicate your life to fighting alongside. Fight as one."

"And you should share the food you find with _everyone_ if possible," Tucker said. "We support each other with food as well as fight."

"And _never_ eat until you're full," Sam added. "You'll get hungry again later with no food to spare. Even when times are plentiful, like now, the food should last as long as possible. In other words, eat very little." There was a great deal of muttering after this.

A Fighter named Michael lifted his head up to his leaders, a shimmer in his dark green eyes. "I think we can do it!" he exclaimed boldly. A cheer rose up from the teens.

"One more thing!" Danny shouted. The team fell silent. "We'll be living on the streets from now onward," the leader said gravely. "We can survive without our houses. I mean, this warehouse is an excellent shelter. We have food for the time being. And if things start to run out, we can hunt, can't we? We can survive out here."

"I'm not going back to that old house, anyway," one girl said.

"I agree!" yelled John passionately. "There's too much pain there now!"

"Home isn't my home any more."

There were some, however, that disagreed. "But my house is so much nicer than this old place! More comfortable, too," said one boy, turning and leaving, pushing his way through the crowd.

"The food will last longer if it's just me eating it," said another, following the other boy out. Others followed without a word, including a few established Freedom Fighters.

Something painful twisted itself within Danny's heart, then the angry words flew out of his mouth. "You _won't_ be welcomed back!" No one but a couple of former Fighters turned to look at Danny. Then they, too, slinked off onto the streets.

"Sacrificing a fight for their families to get a little extra food and comfort," Sam hissed under her breath.

"That's low, man," Tucker concluded. Other Fighters had the same opinions, judging from the muttering. They couldn't understand how someone could be so disloyal as to leave the team they'd stuck with for so long.

"Rule number four!" Danny cried. "The price of disloyalty such as this will be a permanent banishment from the team! You'll have to fend for yourselves. You will never be able to join again." And so the Freedom Fighters became fifty, twenty left to fend for themselves. Seven were part of the original thirty-five. Seven were destined to be scorned by their former teammates. Danny sighed and looked upon the loyal fifty. This was his team. These were the true Freedom Fighters. "We could win or lose this war," Danny began, "but I'm betting on the win. Despite the hardships we're about to face, I believe in you. _We_ do.

"Don't look back like _they_ did. Fight for your future, because if you don't fight, you _will not_ have a future. Fight for your families. Use them as your motivation, but not with the objective of vengeance. Ask yourself, would they want you to fight for them?" There was silence for at least five seconds before Danny spoke again, in a low voice. "Violence isn't usually the answer, but what other choice do we have now? It's the only way."

,.~*~.,

**Le end this first part of chapter 6! Hope you liked it :D Hope you'll be awaiting part 2 eagerly! Next part is where the meat of the story starts to set in. Over halfway done with the first book, you know that right? :3 4 more full chapters after the next part and an epilogue. Fun! ^^**


	8. Chapter 6 PART 2: Battle Wounds

**Part 2! :D Meant to post it on thursday, but Thursday was too busy. So I ended up posting it on Friday! XD This chapter... oh my goodness. XD 22 pages worth of chapter where 10 pages is my usual? This took forever D:**

**Ah, well. Violence and blood alert! Beware.**

**Frontlines: Chapter 6 PART 2- (Battle) Wounds**

Throughout the next month, the Fighters lived on the streets. They grew more skilled, or gained skills that they had not had before. During the first week, Sam set up rations and practice fight locations. Some fights were on the vacant lot while others took place in alleys for tight situations. No one was very good at first, but by the next week, many were beginning to shape up to be fantastic fighters. Some practice fights involved teamwork with a fighting partner against several other teams, while some were one-on-one. Dash and Kwan dominated when they fought as one, and held each other in a stalemate when they fought against each other. Other teams, such as Ivan and John, could fight and win with the advantage of knowing each other's thoughts and outsmarting other teams.

Danny himself learned several new fighting tactics, as did Tucker and Sam. Tucker didn't want to put himself in the middle of combat most of the time, however, and was usually practicing his hacking skills on security cameras. He was getting faster at it daily. Both boys learned how to be stealthy and silent, which they learned through the practice of hunting. Others had also learned how to hunt, just in case food ran out. Sam didn't learn how to be stealthy in order to hunt, but to use the element of surprise on enemies. She, too, was getting better at it daily.

By the end of the month, practice fights had become more intense. Some lasted a long time while others were over in a flash. Danny often participated in hand-to-hand combat, and sometimes knife-to-knife. He was getting quite skilled at both, though he was much better at hand-to-hand because of his experience with it. Sam had also taught him how to use a gun, which was very useful for hunting. Sam didn't appreciate or endorse Danny using her gun for the purpose of killing animals, but she let him use it anyway. It could at least feed the other Fighters that had no interest in becoming vegetarians.

Danny could catch a squirrel or two in the park on a good day, but his favorite thing to catch was birds. Tucker and a few other boys enjoyed going on these bird hunts with him using their own weapons. Artistic Ben Williams had crafted a small bow and arrows which he made good use of, and an older teen who went by "Griffin" was an excellent shot with a knife. Danny and Tucker, being with guns, always waited to shoot until the others had caught something themselves. After all, using a gun right off the bat would doubtlessly scare off other prey.

The day's hunt had been good, though not as much food had been caught as usual. Ben had shot a robin and a sparrow, Griffin had pinned a fat pigeon, Tucker had killed a sizable squirrel, and Danny had two halves of a blackbird. "I think we did pretty well," Tucker said, holding up his squirrel by its tail.

"Not _as_ well," Griffin said, "but at least this pigeon looks pretty good."

"Nice catches, guys," Danny congratulated. "Better than the blackbird split I've got." He held up the two ends for the other boys to see.

"How is it _my_ gun catches cleaner prey than yours?" asked Tucker with a smirk.

"Don't ask me," Danny said. "Maybe it's just my aim."

The four boys made their way towards the warehouse and talked about different things, including when and where the next practice fight would be. Then Ben sighed. "I can't believe it's been a month since the Massacre," he said.

Danny shuddered. "Pretty much exactly," he whispered.

Within that month, the Fighters had changed. Not only had they changed by bonding as a team, but their physical appearance had changed as well. Danny still wore the red headband around his head, of course, and the same clothes and shoes. His clothes were growing dirty, however, and the knees on his jeans were beginning to wear through. His hair was a bit longer and shaggier than it had been a month before. It now reached about halfway down the back of his neck.

Tucker now wore his sleeves rolled up. His shirt was untucked and his belt was strapped around his waist over the shirt. He still wore the same red beret and glasses, however.

Sam looked the same aside from the fact that she didn't wear her gothic makeup any more. She had no access to makeup and had no need for it.

Dash, Kwan, Billy and other jocks had gotten rid of their letter jackets or were saving them for cooler weather. But no one could even think about wearing a jacket in the current weather. Temperatures had been hanging around in the eighties all week. Even young Chris, who always wore a baggy army-green jacket, was walking around with bare arms.

_Summer must be growing close,_ Danny thought. Summer. Had spring really been so long ago? Danny had lost track of the time passing. The memories of death and horror were still so fresh that they continued to haunt his dreams. Night after night, twisted recreations of Jazz's death and Sam's parents covered in their own blood haunted his subconscious. Sometimes her dead family members would rise from the dead and yell at him for letting them die, reaching for him with claw-like fingers that dripped with crimson blood. Sometimes, and this was most nights, he found himself standing over Jazz's body with the gun in his hand. It seemed that every time he had this dream, the amount of blood pouring from her wounds increased. Just thinking of the nightmares sent chills down Danny's spine and sent a fresh pang of self-disgust through him. So he quickly shook it off and got to work doing something.

Danny dropped his bird halves on a crate in the warehouse and was followed by the other boys. Griffin got his knife out and began to clean the kills. Danny went off to grab a box of metal sticks to cook the food on while Ben and Tucker grabbed supplies to start a fire outside. The smoke would tell other Fighters that something was cooking, but it could also alert the enemy of their location. At least, this had been the fear when the idea of cooking the food outside was first brought up. Nothing had happened, however, so the Fighters concluded that it was safe to do.

Danny walked outside and sat down on the pavement. The fire was set up on the vacant lot. A nice little flame was blazing atop a pile of wood surrounded by concrete blocks. Griffin came out of the warehouse with neatly sliced pieces of bird and squirrel lying on a wooden board, just waiting to be cooked.

Brent, Chris, John and Ashley had already appeared and were gathering around the fire. No doubt they were all hungry. _Everyone_ was hungry. The food supplies continued to deplete rapidly, despite Sam cutting down the rations of each Fighter. Therefore, other teens had found other foods and brought them to the fire.

Brent carried a stale bread roll to share with everybody. Danny nodded. "That should go well with the squirrel. I guess." Some other stuff was brough out from the meager supply of food including a water bottle and a slice of bread. The portions were divided equally among the group of fifteen now gathered around the fire. Four birds, a squirrel and a couple of bread items given to fifteen hungry teenagers wasn't much at all.

Danny nibbled at his food in order to conserve it as long as possible. "So I've been thinking," he began, "about our first big mission."

"Already?" Tucker asked, a chuckle to his voice.

"Why not?" asked Danny in reply. "We're getting pretty good. Carpathan's probably not even aware we're alive and kicking."

"What's the point of going in and fighting?" asked Michael. "What will we be doing?" He flipped his chocolatey brown hair.

"We're going to check out the mayor's mansion. You know, find its ins-and-outs," Danny explained, excluding his desire to find out if, and where, his parents were hidden there. That is, assuming they were at his place. After all, he didn't want his team to think he was selfish.

"I'd like to go on that mission," said Michael.

"Me too," Brent added. "I've been looking for some action."

"I'm announcing this publically in the warehouse tonight. Could you guys spread the news to everyone else if possible?"

"Sure thing," John said. He gave his leader a weak smile. Danny could tell that he wasn't up to his usual joking ways, or his full strength. That was evident by the dark bags underneath his eyes. At least he was eating for the first time in a long time. Perhaps he, too, was haunted by nightmarish images of his sister's death.

"Thanks," Danny said. He finished his bite of robin and shoved his bread into his pocket for later, then took a sip of water. The young teen stood up and made his way toward the building next to the warehouse.

It was an abandoned building covered with climbing ivy with a metal staircase that led up to a small balcony of the same material and design. Danny climbed up the stairs and stood on the balcony, observing the town of Amity Park from up high. The gray trucks were out on the streets, stopping by peoples' houses and delivering food.

Carpathan had taken complete control of the town's food supply and shipment. Most of it went to the mayor's mansion, but the residents of the town were fed as well. Three times a day, the peacekeepers made their rounds. The same food that was delivered at late afternoon often ended up in garbage cans or blue bins, just in smaller amounts. People were so wasteful, Danny mused with a shake of his head. That or they were subtly trying to help the "rebels". This thought brought a smile to his distressed face. If there were people on their side, that would make life a whole lot easier.

"So, what's this I hear about you planning to attack Mayor Carpathan's place?"

Danny whipped around, startled. Sam was standing there, smirking at him with her arms folded. "Oh, hey, Sam," Danny said, chuckling nervously. "You kinda scared me."

"It sounds like a plan to me, Danny," said Sam.

"So I should go through with it?" asked Danny.

"Sure. We all agree there should be some action, though some think your motivation is questionable."

Danny sighed and leaned over the balcony's metal fencing. "It's nothing dishonest," he mumbled. "I'm just... I don't know. It would be nice to find our way around the place, should we have to."

"But why do you _want_ to? That's what they're asking."

"Just... tell them that it's to know the enemy's territory, in case we go there someday." Danny shifted and looked down.

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Do you realize how cryptic you sounded just then?" she asked. 'I'm your best friend, co-leader and fighting partner. Just tell me the reason for this. The _real_ reason."

Danny shut his eyes and rubbed his forehead in frustration. "How do you know that _isn't_ the real reason?" he snapped quietly.

"You're mumbling and looking down," Sam said. "You always do that when you're not entirely serious or you're giving a half-truth."

_Sam studies me _that _closely?_ It was a really creepy thought, but it didn't matter at the moment. Danny finally gave in. "OK, so it's a half-truth! I _do_ want to know the area, not _just_ for that purpose. Thing is, I'm afraid if I told them that reason I'd look selfish."

"What _is_ that reason?" Sam asked.

"I want to... see if my parents are there."

Sam shook her head and sighed. "Why do boys make such mountains out of molehills?" she asked the air. "That's not selfish. That's an honest will to help someone close to you at a great personal cost. If you were selfish, you'd be doing everything for your personal gain."

"But it is, sort of, for my personal gain," Danny argued. "I want my parents back and I'm sending Fighters to die so I can be prepared. Fighters could die for my family. _My_ family. Not theirs."

"We came together for wrongs done to you," said Sam. "They honestly won't think you're selfish, and they don't now."

Danny hesitated, breath caught in his throat.

"You gave them a purpose, something to really live for," Sam continued.

"So I send them to their deaths," Danny muttered darkly, "for a purpose I gave them."

"They'd _willingly_ die for that purpose. This isn't your fault."

"But it _is-_" Danny started to shout, but cut himself short of his final word. He shut his mouth. "We've had this conversation before," Danny said quietly.

"Yes, we have," Sam said. "And I recall winning." This brought a slight smile to Danny's face. "Just tell them it's to prepare for a later mission. That _is_ why you brought up your parents, right?" Danny nodded. "They could be a help to us, you know."

Danny kept nodding. "OK," he whispered. He raised his head up to the sky. "Let's get them together."

,.~*~.,

Fighters, our first big mission is at hand," Danny began, scanning his blue gaze over the fifty teens below him.

"Finally!" one exclaimed.

"We're going to sneak into the mayor's mansion. Not just to know the territory, but to... prepare for a later mission. Our next mission. Our biggest." Cheering rose from the crowd. Danny waved his hands to silence them. "Some of you have already approached me about going on this mission. Brent, Michael and I are going for sure."

"I will," said Sam.

"Add Sam to that, and... who else?"

"Kwan and I'll go," shouted Dash.

A few others joined in for the mission: A rusty-haired girl, a stocky blonde boy, a dark-haired girl with a single ponytail, John, a tall brunette boy known as Toby, Ben, and a girl named Frisk.

"When do we strike?"

"Tomorrow night. I'll call you all when we're ready."

,.~*~.,

Signals flashed between Fighters as they gathered near the mansion where Carpathan lived. Danny pointed at five of them and signaled toward the tall fence behind the mansion. They held up their hands in a "live long and prosper" symbol and silently took off. He sent another group of six to find an entrance from the side. He and Sam planned to attack from the front. The glorious white house was lit up by the moon, which reflected silvery light upon the front yard and the stretch of the drive up to the enormous gate.

Danny licked his lips and beckoned with his hand for Sam to follow. He jogged up to the gate and hopped up onto the gate, using a horizontal black bar as a foothold. He began to climb the gate, Sam climbing up right behind him. About halfway up, a low growling sounded from below them.

"D...Danny?" Sam questioned. The growling grew louder and louder until it turned into a truly demonic noise. "Danny?" Sam said once again, sounding urgent this time.

Danny looked down. He froze. "Don't look now, Sam," he breathed, eyes wide. Staring up at Sam with hungry brown eyes was a large German Shepherd dog. Its lips were curled back and its eyes were sparkling with madness. It licked its teeth and snarled out a bark. "Guard dog," Danny hissed. "Let's just keep moving, and try to avoid making a false move."

Sam lifted a leg to climb up the gate further. Apparently, _any_ move was a false move. The dog leaped up and sank its jaws into Sam's leg. Out of shock, Sam yelped and let go. She hurtled toward the ground with the dog.

"Sam!" Danny cried. In a sudden burst of either determination or stupidity, he jumped down from the gate. Landing on all four limbs, Danny suddenly found himself face-to-face with yet another foe. He stood to his feet slowly, eying the vicious mongrel that had thrown itself between Sam and himself.

Danny looked up to see Sam shoving the dog off her leg and scramble backwards onto her feet. "Danny, I'll be fine! Run!"

Danny looked from Sam to the huge black dog approaching him. Sam, who was in danger, or the vicious, bloodthirsty beast that was _his_ immediate danger. Running and leading one dog away from Sam, lessening the danger, or letting Sam face two dogs in his death? Letting the Freedom Fighters fall apart in his death?

Danny surprised himself when he grinned with all the foolish confidence in the world. "Hey droolface, follow me!" He took off, still terrified on the inside, toward a nearby oak tree. With any luck, he could climb up into the tree and use his knife to cut a branch down to crush the dog. Wait, the knife! Danny pulled out his knife and flashed it at the dog.

Luck didn't seem to be on Danny's side. Before he reached the tree, the dog caught up and rammed him from the side. This knocked him off course and sent the knife flying. Before Danny gould run off to go get his weapon, the dog reared up onto its hind legs and slashed two deep cuts into Danny's left arm. He half-screamed and then bit his lip. The dog's claws _burned!_

He backed up into a run as the angry dog pounded closer. Finally, as he backed into grass, he tripped on a tree root and nearly fell onto his back. He swayed to keep himself on his feet. Momentarily forgetting that he was running for his life, the boy stumbled forward and stood on the concrete.

The dog was too close to run from it now. As the dog opened its jaws and leaped into the air, Danny knew he'd have to take the blow. He shut his eyes tightly and braced for impact. A tremendous weight slammed into his chest and knocked him to the ground. Before he could even regain his breath, pain- terrible, terrible, ripping pain- tore into his face, starting at above his right eyebrow and the bottom of his jaw, then tore inward toward his eye. The whole right side of his face burned with indescribable agony. Danny clenched his teeth and turned his head, preparing for another vicious bite.

But the dog atop him snarled as its weight was thrown off his body. Danny took a gasp of air. _Sam?_ Danny thought. Had she escaped the other dog?

"Get offa him, you snarling, ugly old fleabag!" No, that was Dash's voice! Danny opened his good eye and scrambled to sit up, wincing as his wounded arm scraped the concrete. In his blurry vision, he saw Dash taking on the dog with his bare hands. The dog snarled and curled back its lips, revealing razor-sharp bloodstained teeth. Blinking, Danny gingerly touched the wound on his face. He looked down at the dark red liquid now splashed on his fingers. That blood on the dog's teeth belonged to _him!_

The dog leaped for Dash's throat, but the large teen moved out of the way, then tackled the dog to the ground. He held it down using all of his weight, keeping its muzzle shut with one hand and digging out his knife with the other. "Sorry to do this to ya, dog," Dash growled. He drove the knife into the squirming dog's neck. The last noise it made was a pain-filled squeak. After that, it stopped struggling.

Dash removed the now blood-soaked knife from the furry black body and huffed. He stood up, kicked the dead dog aside, and looked at the bewildered Danny. "I always knew you were a wimp, Fenton," he began, "but seriously. A _dog_ overpowering you?"

"Just tell me _everything_ wrong with my fighting skills, why don't you?" Danny growled, standing up. He spat out a portion of blood that had drained down into his mouth from his wound.

"Man, that's bleeding bad. You should get it fixed up pretty fast," Dash said.

Danny chuckled and coughed. "Sam can do that... Oh my gosh, Sam! Where is she? Is she alive?" the boy cried in a panic.

"Kwan should be taking care of her now," Dash told the excited teen. "In fact, she's probably perfectly safe now."

"But she's hurt... I need to know she's OK for _sure,_ Dash," Danny said. He spat another clot of blood from his mouth.

"I'm fine, Danny," a female voice panted. There, with Kwan, stood a very chewed-up girl. Her arm was deeply sliced from her left shoulder down to her inner arm, located behind the elbow joint. Along with that, bites and scratches riddled her entire body. Her leggings were torn, her skirt was ripped, and her shirt was scratched up. A small "X"-shaped scratch sat above her eye.

"Sam." Danny smiled in relief.

"You look better than I do," Sam croaked. She smirked, revealing a hint of her normal self.

He nodded at her with a grin, then turned to Kwan. "Kwan, report. How did your side go? Any better? Any worse? Good news, bad news?" Danny looked around. "Where's everybody else?"

"Ours was no better," said Kwan, looking down. "We ran into a bunch of peacekeepers on the way in and we had to fight them. I think they're all dead. After that, we ran into two from the other group. The other three are M-I-A. Good news is the rest of us are fine and searching for them at this moment."

Danny sighed and spat a sizable ball of blood from his mouth. He wiped his lips on his shirt collar and asked, "Who's missing?"

"Michael, Cam and Ginger," Kwan answered.

Danny knew who they were. Michael was the small but determined boy with brown hair. He was very good with knives and other blades; Danny had lost many a practice fight to him. Cam was a stocky teenaged boy with shaggy blonde hair. He could wrestle anyone down to the floor and hold him there. Ginger was a 17-year-old girl with rusty hair and seemingly super strength. To lose _any_ of them would be a weakening blow to the Freedom Fighters.

_Don't let them be dead,_ Danny thought. He wiped more blood off his face, wincing when he accidentally brushed the shirt over his wound.

"I've got a roll of bandages back at the warehouse," Sam said. "That should get fixed as soon as possible."

"It's only a few-" Danny stopped as he sputtered blood from his mouth again- "scratches."

"Scratches that bleed like heck," Sam said. "You should look at yourself. That entire side of your face is soaked red!"

"So is your arm," Danny retorted.

"Uh, can you two stop arguing over who's the bloodier mess?" Dash asked snobbishly. "I'd like to go back home now."

Danny hacked a huge, bloody loogie in Dash's direction. "OK, then," he sneered.

,.~*~.,

Danny winced as Sam gingerly touched the inflamed skin around the scratches on his arm. "Agh!" he interjected.

"I'm not even touching it, Tenderskin," Sam growled good-naturedly. "But I'm going to when I wash it." She grabbed a bandage and a clean cloth, then poured water from a bottle onto it. She held Danny's wrist and gently wiped away the blood encrusted around the wound. The boy bit his lip.

Once finished, Sam wrapped the bandaging around the wound on Danny's arm. Danny observed the freshly-bandaged wound with his good blue eye. "I need to look at that eye, Danny. Before I bandage that wound."

Danny looked back up at Sam. "But Sam, it _hurts_ to open that eye!" he exclaimed.

"I know, but I need to see if the eye is damaged any. That wound cut deep."

Danny sighed. "I'll try to open it..." Slowly, Danny's swollen eyelid began to flicker open. A hint of bloodshot blue flickered from the eye before it shut again.

Sam sighed and pried her friend's eye open, causing the boy to shriek in pain. The girl looked into his eye for a few seconds, then gave a nod of satisfaction and let the eyelid go. Danny flopped back against the wall and groaned. "Don't do that again..." he whined.

"Sorry," Sam apologized. "There isn't anything wrong with the eye itself, but..."

"But?" Danny questioned.

"That's gonna leave a monster scar."

Danny sighed. "Just clean it and bandage it already," he muttered. He sat in silence, watching Sam prepare the cloth for another wash. She began to clean the blood from his face. Danny just stared at her, suddenly fascinated with the lock of raven-black hair hanging down in her face. "Sam, you should get bandaged up first," he said.

"Nah, I'll do it later," said Sam.

"I could bandage you in turn if you want," the boy said.

Sam began to wrap the bandage over her friend's forehead. "No thanks," she declined. "I like to take care of myself."

"Just trying to help," Danny murmured.

Sam carefully wrapped the bandage over the boy's wounded eye and then wound it under his ear and back around the foreheadhead over the cheek. Finally, she finished bandaging his wounds and started to treat her own.

Danny shifted his sitting position and felt the side of his face. The tough yet soft bandage was strangely comfortable. The way it was tied reminded Danny of a sling. He shifted again and watched Sam attempt to bandage her arm and shoulder. Every time she twisted herself to try to wrap the wound, it would begin to ooze fresh blood. "Sam, let me do that one. You can do the rest if you want," Danny offered.

Sam glowered at him. Danny breathed in frustration. "Remember the day we first met?"

Sam chuckled and fussed around with her roll of bandages. "How could I forget?" she asked.

"Well, you know how after I fell and you were trying to fix me up? And how I was shutting my eyes out to the blood? How it made me feel sick?"

"Of course."

"Well, put yourself in my place. Say you fell, cut your knee, and were sickened by blood like I was. If no one else could heal that cut, would you let that one person do it? Just once?"

Sam nodded. "Well, in that case, yeah. I guess," she said. "But I don't shy away from a little blood."

"Well, neither do I anymore," said Danny. "Just this once, let someone return the favor and let him take care of _you_."

Sam bit her lip in hesitation. She exhaled through her nostrils. "Just this once," she whispered.

Danny smiled weakly and took the bandage roll from Sam's hand. He began to wrap it around her wounded arm with care. _He's growing up,_ Sam thought. The care and concentration in the boy's single sky blue eye wasn't faked. It was real, and just seemed so _mature._ Had it really only been a month since Danny Fenton had been a clumsy, weak, out-of-shape wimp? Even Dash had respect for him now. Did Danny even know exactly how much power he had as the leader of the Freedom Fighters? Sam shook her head in amazement.

Danny paused in his wrapping and looked up. "Am I doing something wrong?" he asked.

"No, you're doing just fine," Sam told him.

The leader sighed. "Good." He finished by tucking the bandage into one of its own creases. "I wasn't prepared to do that all over again..." His voice trailed off into a long yawn.

"Danny, how well have you been sleeping?" Sam inquired.

Danny grunted and rubbed his eye. "Not well since the Massacre," he said. "Recently, I haven't had any sleep at _all."_

Sam took back her bandages and bloody cloth. "You should get some rest tonight. Tucker and I can lead the team until you're strong enough to lead the team again."

"How can I sleep with so many nightmares in my head?" Danny snapped. "And... I can't sleep anyway. Not with this weird empty feeling gnawing at me all the time. It's like some kind of hunger."

"We're _all_ hungry," Sam said. "We've all learned to deal with that. It shouldn't be keeping you awake."

Danny shook his head. "No, it's not a hungry feeling in _that_ sense," he said. In fact, he couldn't care less about food in that moment. "It's just this _emptiness_ inside me. I need something to fill the hole, but I don't know what that thing is."

"Danny! Sam! You two are all right!" Tucker's voice boomed into the warehouse. He had a huge, relieved grin on his face as he sat down on the ground with his friends.

Danny smiled at Tucker. "Hey, Tuck," he said quietly.

"Dude, what happened to you guys?" the boy in the beret asked, his hazel eyes concerned.

"Dogs," Danny answered.

"Those are gonna be some nasty scars, huh?"

"You bet." Danny yawned and blinked sleepily. "Man, I'm tired," he muttered. "If only I could sleep."

"Gonna have to wait on that a little bit longer," said Dash, poking his head into the warehouse. "Brent and the others are back with... word." The blonde's eyes flitted across the room before he left.

Sam, now done bandaging herself, stood up and left the warehouse. Danny shared a one-eyed glance with Tucker. Then the boys jumped to their feet and followed her out. From a distance, Danny caught a flash of red hair and a shock of blonde. A black T-shirt and long brown hair. Relieved faces. Sad faces.

"Brent!" Danny called. "Did you find them?"

Brent shuffled up to Danny. He took a hesitant breath and answered, "We found two." He signaled in the direction of the others. "Take a look."

Danny saw a thickset boy, his yellowish hair in tangles, leaned over and clutching his stomach. Toby was supporting him from the side, keeping him on his feet. Blood that had streamed from his mouth had left a scarlet trail down his chin. Cam was obviously very weak, and in a lot of pain.

"Where's the other one?" asked Danny, confused. Cam was the only missing Fighter he saw.

Brent looked down. John stepped forward, someone slung over his shoulder. "No," Danny mouthed. "No. no." This time it was a whisper. John slowly removed the limp figure from his shoulder and gently set it on the ground. Danny started to shake his head. "No, no, no," he whimpered. Michael's eyes were wide open and unblinking and his mouth was agape. A lifeless glaze was over his eyes, a sure sign of death. That same glaze had been on Jazz's eyes when she died, and on the Mansons' as well. That same face of death, those vacant eyes...

"No, no, NO!" Danny yelled, his eye wide and alight with insanity. Seeing Michael dead was too much for the sleep-deprived teen to take. The memories were coming back and there was absolutely no stopping them. "No... not death!" Danny furiously dug his fingers through his hair.

"Danny?" Sam asked. The teen had a wild look in his blue eye, and he was trembling all over. Sam reached out to touch her friend's shoulder.

Danny violently jerked away from her. "Get away from me!" he yelled, staring at the body. He ran backwards several paces. "Stay back!"

"Danny-" Tucker started to speak, but Danny had already taken off down the streets of Amity Park. He ran and ran until he reached an alley, where he pressed his face against the brick wall of one of the buildings. Sobs racked his body as he released the buildup of tears. He wasn't even sure if he could cry from his injured eye, but the tears were definitely pouring from his good one. So much for looking strong.

"Danny?" That was Sam.

"Go away," Danny muttered.

"You know, it's good to cry sometimes. No need to be embarrased about it with me," said Sam.

"I don't care. I told you to go away," Danny urged, voice shaky. "J- Jazz- z..."

"Michael isn't Jazz," Sam said gently, cautiously approaching her friend.

Danny snuffled. "I know," he rasped. "But his eyes made me think of how she looked when she died... I'm sorry for flipping out on you guys." Danny wiped the tears from his eye, calming down. He now knew that he wasn't just left with ugly physical scars, but he also had deep emotional scars. None would disappear, but only the visible ones would stop hurting. The invisible ones on the inside would hurt forever.

"I know you're sorry," said Sam. "We forgive you. Come on back, get some sleep. Tucker is preparing a place for you to rest tonight at this very moment.

Danny nodded, blinking sleepily. "Any more sleepless nights and I'll go crazy." He glanced at Sam with a little smile. "Well, crazier than I've already gone." He allowed Sam to lead him back to the warehouse.

Already he was covering up his mental scars with a mask of gratitude. He would sleep tonight, and hopefully have it undisturbed by nightmares. Then tomorrow would be better. It _had_ to be.

,.~*~.,

**And that concludes chapter 6! :D Hope you enjoyed it. And you guys! Yeah, you people. You guys who are reading and not reviewing. There's a load of you. I keep track of your views on this story. I had 69 views yesterday and only one review! Guess what? 8D I'm kindly asking you to review and tell me what you think! Reviews are like compliments that keep me motivated.**

**Motivation= Me going nuts over writing and pushing to type**

**No motivation= Me getting upset and getting writer's block**

**:3 Please review... lolz**


	9. Chapter 7- To Build a Better Mouse Trap

**At last, you have received chapter 7. :D Hope you liked the last chapter, thanks for the reviews... and with the shortest author's note ever, I say adeiu.**

**Frontlines Chapter 7- To Build a Better Mouse Trap**

Danny opened his eye to sunlight streaming in through an old broken window. He moaned and turned over onto his stomach. At first, he questioned why he could only see out of one eye, and what he was doing lying on a dirty old mattress. Then he remembered. He couldn't see out of his right eye because it had been injured by a dog. Plus, it was covered with bandages. He was on a dirty mattress because Tucker had found it and set it up for him to sleep on that previous night. He had gone to sleep hoping for a better day to wake up to.

_Well, here we go, today,_ Danny thought, sitting up. He was famished, so he dug around in his pocket for a tiny bread crust he'd put there days before. He took it out and made a fast meal of it. It was nowhere near satisfactory, but at least it was some kind of sustenance for his body.

"Good morning, Sleepyhead," said Sam from somewhere in the room.

"Yeah," said Tucker. "It's been bright daylight for a really long time. We missed you on the bird hunt."

"Well, why didn't you wake me up?" asked Danny, turning to look at his friends.

"You needed the sleep," Tucker replied. "I caught something for you and cooked it. Griffin cleaned it." Tucker held up a large chunk of meat sitting on a wooden board.

"Why?" Danny asked. "Why did you catch food for me and nobody else?" There was an edge to his voice.

"You need to eat, too," Tucker answered. "You've only been eating crumbs for the past few days, aside from what little bits of meat you've eaten. I mean, the entirety of food you ate this week wouldn't even add up to half a meal."

"I like to conserve it, OK?" Danny said. "No big deal."

"Yes, big deal," Sam said. "If you want those scars to heal up faster, you've got to eat something aside from bread crumbs. Besides, you're the head leader of this team. You need to stay strong."

"But the _team_ needs to be fed, too," Danny argued stubbornly. "Moreso than me. Shouldn't a leader make sacrifices for his team?"

"Shouldn't a leader also stay _strong_ and _healthy_ for his team?"

"I guess so," Danny mumbled.

"You two have been arguing a lot," Tucker noted. "And it's over some seemingly pointless or obvious stuff."

"As if you and Sam arguing over _meat_ and _vegetables_ _isn't_ pointless," Danny said, chuckling.

"Hey, that's a totally valid argument!" said Tucker, smiling despite himself. "But I wouldn't really care about it now with you; you could do meat or veggies. Although, even Sam agrees that meat would be best for you right now. You've lost a lot of weight."

"I'll eat it, OK?" Danny said. "I'll admit it, I'm starving right now. But I'll still probably feel a little guilty for eating valuable food that can help feed my team." The boy took the meat from Tucker's hands and took a slow bite. Fresh and warm, it was the best thing he'd eaten in a month. Before long, it was reduced to an assortment of tiny bones. "Thanks, Tuck," Danny said.

"Don't mention it," Tucker replied, holding up his hands.

"Robin, wasn't it?"

"Yup. That seems to be your favorite bird we catch."

"It is. Thanks again."

Sam shook her head. "Now you even know what flavor of bird you like best," she muttered, halfway smirking.

Then they all heard a loud screech of tires from a distance. Danny hopped up and ran outside. He and his friends ran up the stairs to the ivy-covered building's balcony. From up high, Danny could see one of the peacekeepers' gray trucks stopped in front of FentonWorks. _No surprise there,_ he thought. He was about to pass the sight off as just a routine peacekeeper meeting before the back of the truck flew open. Peacekeepers stormed out, dragging two individuals in handcuffs with them. One was a huge man in a tattered orange jumpsuit. The other was a slender woman in a weathered blue jumpsuit.

Danny could barely contain himself. "It's Mom and Dad!" he exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. But the smile quickly vanished when a man in a black suit, red tie, and slicked back raven-black hair stepped out from the passenger seat of the van. The epitome of evil. Carpathan. "Carpathan still has them," Danny hissed, narrowing his eye. There was that freaky empty feeling again.

Directly behind the Fentons was a man with long silver hair tied up in a ponytail. He was wearing what appeared to be a fancy black version of a peacekeeper's uniform, which was typically dark blueish-gray in color. Danny could only watch helplessly as the peacekeepers and this man shoved his parents into the old house.

"Who _knows_ what's going to happen in there?" Danny asked aloud. He wasn't entirely sure he _wanted_ to know.

,.~*~.,

Maddie sent a glare to the latest peacekeeper to jab her in the side with his gun. They didn't have to do that so often; she was smart enough to keep walking. She silently cursed them.

She silently cursed her husband for readily agreeing to Vlad's offers for the sake of a long-gone friendship. _Anyone_ could tell that Vlad couldn't stand Jack- Anyone but Jack himself, that is.

"Come on, Vladdy, what's with the handcuffs?" the man asked. Vlad scowled. Jack continued, "And can you tell these guys to stop poking me in the gut? It's really unnerving..." He narrowed his eyes at a peacekeeper.

The peacekeepers shoved the ghost hunters inside and led them down through the house and into the lab. _Would Danny still be living here?_ Maddie thought, her heart pounding. _He wasn't arrested. And what about Jazz? Is she all right? Are they safe?_ The peacekeepers stopped in the lab, holding each Fenton by the arm. With a rough shove, the couple found themselves standing right in front of their ghost portal.

It was partially dismantled and surrounded by extremely frustrated peacekeepers holding wrenches, hammers, and other tools. Carpathan strode in front of the ghost portal and faced the Fentons. "How would you dismantle it?" he asked, narrowing his eyes threateningly. "Tell me how."

Jack opened his mouth to speak, but Maddie cut him off. "Not until _you_ tell me where my kids are," she demanded.

Carpathan gave her a sickening smile. "Ah, no problem there, Mrs. Fenton," he said smoothly. "Your daughter is dead and your son is roaming the streets trying to survive with a ramshackle lot of kids from his school." Both Jack and Maddie gasped at the news. "They did not cooperate," continued the mayor. "And if _you_ do not cooperate, I will make sure you _suffer_ or _die._ Understood?"

Maddie and Jack nodded, shaken with the knowledge they had just acquired. Jazz was dead and Danny was somewhere on the streets, most likely close to death? That to them was scarier than any threat Carpathan could make.

Carpathan smirked. "Good. Perfect answer. Now you will answer my _other_ question."

Jack furrowed an eyebrow. "What question was that again?" he asked.

Carpathan approached the man slowly until he was face-to-face with the ghost hunter. Blue eyes locked. The mayor slowly began to enunciate each word in his sentence. "How. Would. You. Dismantle. _That."_ He pointed sharply at the ghost portal.

"Uh... you would take it apart?" Jack asked, a hint of mocking in his tone.

"We've tried!" one frustrated peacekeeper snarled, throwing down a large wrench.

"Order, Mr. Fenton," Carpathan shouted. "In what _order_ and with _what_ would you take it apart?!"

"Special Fenton building tools," Jack replied proudly. He grinned. "Only _I_ know how to get to them."

Carpathan nodded. "Peacekeepers," he told the bunch they had come in with, "unshackle these two. They will dismantle the portal _for_ us. And if they do not..." He signaled to the armed guards by the lab stairs. They cocked their guns. "I will have them shot."

Maddie and Jack were both equally distressed. Now they were being forced to tear down all their hard work. Maddie resisted the urge to take on Carpathan as soon as the cuffs snapped off her wrists. Jack looked extremely upset at the terrible news and a bit confused by it. No doubt the news about his kids and the knowledge that he had to take down his own invention grieved him as it had her.

"Get those tools and get to work," Carpathan ordered.

Maddie glared icily at him before following her husband to the weapons vault to get the tools.

,.~*~.,

Danny stayed on the balcony all day until the sun went down. He wanted to know if his parents were safe. Did they know how much he thought about him? Did they know how much he wanted to save them? Heck, did they even know he was _alive?_ "I wish I knew how to get you out of there," he whispered. "But I don't. I failed. Now I can't."

The doors of FentonWorks suddenly flew open. Danny breathed a sigh of relief when his parents, seemingly unharmed, were led out of the building. He kept watching silently, even after the gray truck had sped off into the distance.

Footsteps pounded behind him. "Danny!" That was Rich, a kid with black hair and an overly sentimental attachment to his old brown cap. "There you are! Cam wants to talk to you."

Danny turned to face the teen. "He's still alive?" he asked, voice cracked from neglected use.

"Yeah, but not for long," Rich replied. "He needs to tell you something. I think it's important."

Danny nodded and followed Rich down the stairs and through the streets to an alley that wasn't all that far away. There, cusioned by multiple garbage bags, lay Cam Cass.

He looked even worse then he had that previous day. His face was pale and almost colorless, his white shirt stained almost totally red. He looked up at Danny with dull blue eyes. "Thank goodness Richie found you," Cam rasped. "I meant to tell you last night, but you went crazy and ran off. Then Tucker said you needed to sleep. I guessed it could wait."

He took a rattly breath and reached for something at his side. He lifted the object up for Danny to see. It was a large, shiny sword edged with dried blood. The leader steadied Cam's shaky arm. "Careful, don't cut yourself up," he said.

"Doesn't matter," the blonde rasped. "Take the sword. It was Michael's."

Danny took the sword by the hilt and gently removed it from Cam's hand. "How did you get it?" Danny asked. He looked into the sword's shiny blade to find a total stranger staring back at him. The dark hair looked familiar, but he couldn't place it.

Cam took a slow, deep breath. "I got it from Michael's body after he fell. You should've seen him fight. That kid was determined to beat every one of those peacekeepers. Got a few right through the heart and cut the throats of others. For a moment I thought we would win.

"But then this guy in black came. Fought Michael while I was struggling in my own fight." He paused to cough. "The guy in black never got hit. No matter how many swings Michael gave him, he was never hurt. He grabbed Michael's sword right out of his hand. Then that mayor guy showed up, took the sword, and ran the kid through. They left after that."

Danny looked closer at the sword and scratched some of the blood off. "So this is _his_ blood," the teen said. "He was run through with his own sword... by Carpathan." He felt the strange emptiness inside him grow wider. _I couldn't protect little Michael from Carpathan,_ he thought, gazing sadly at the face in the sword. It stared back at him with the same melancholic expression. "Why'd you tell me this?" Danny asked, looking back at Cam.

The boy gave his leader a crooked, painful smile. "To give you the sword. And to let you know Mike fought his hardest for you."

Danny nodded, tightening his eyebrows. "Goodbye, Cam. I respect you," he said.

Cam nodded his head. "Find Ginger," he whispered, his eyes falling shut. His ragged breathing began to slow down.

"I'll do that," Danny whispered. "Promise."

Cam's mouth twitched into a little smile. Then his chest stopped moving. His body fell limp. Danny shut his eyes. At least Cam didn't have his eyes open; that would have given Danny another blow to his sanity.

He looked back at the sword, once more greeted by a dirty, one-eyed face. "Guess we gotta find Ginger," he rasped, surprised when the face's lips moved in sync with his. His gblue eye widened. "Oh my gosh, is that supposed to be _me?_" he asked aloud. He touched the bandages on his face, and the reflection did the same. He stuck out his tongue. Waved. Raised and lowered his eyebrow repeatedly. "That's me," he confirmed, shaking his head. "Sam and Tucker are right. I really _do_ need more food and sleep." He sighed tiredly.

Danny stood up and left the alley, taking the sword with him. He could learn to use this, right? He already had experience with a knife. This blade shouldn't be too much different. "I'll learn," he told himself. "Then I'm coming for you, Mom and Dad. Don't worry."

,.~*~.,

"You've done well," Carpathan told the air in his office. "Beautiful performance last night."

"_Thank you,"_ a ghostly voice said. "_It is always an honor to fight by your side, Carpathan."_

"Honor or no, my shirt is still soiled," Carpathan grumbled. "It would not matter so much if the blood had hit the tie or the jacket. But of course, it had to hit my nice white shirt."

_"I am sorry,"_ the ghost said.

"I suppose that is _my_ fault," the mayor said. "I have a new assignment for you, ghost."

_"What is it?"_ the ghost asked. He floated closer to the man's desk.

Carpathan folded his hands. "A warehouse, by a vacant lot in the older area of this town."

The ghost answered, "_Yes, what of it?"_

Carpathan snapped his fingers. "Burn it."

,.~*~.,

"Danny, where'd you get the sword?" asked Tucker, watching his friend wash the shiny blade.

Danny sighed. "It was Michael's. Cam gave it to me to fight with." He resumed washing the weapon. "Any luck finding Ginger?"

Tucker shook his head. "No."

Danny sighed. "She can't be far from where they found the others," he said, scrubbing hard at the tip of the sword. "Send more people and have them spread further out. You can't fail this. _I_ can't fail this. Not like I did before. The least we can do is find her, and then bury her with the other two. Make up for sending her to die..." Danny's voice trailed off at the end.

"Take it easy, man," Tucker said. "You couldn't have known..."

"But I did. I _knew_ someone would die last night! And I feel like I let them." The boy continued to clean the sword.

"You _didn't_ let them die; you didn't _send_ them to die either," Tucker argued. "You didn't _kill_ any of them. This all leads up to Carpathan! _He's_ the one to blame."

"He may have killed them, but _I'm_ the one to blame. If I'd never come up with that stupid plan they would still be alive." Danny took a final swipe of his wet cloth to the shiny sword and stood up. He brushed past Tucker and left the alley he had been in.

This alley, complete with garbage cans and a blue dumpster, was becoming his home away from the warehouse. He kept his weapons and a miniscule food stash in this alley, as well as a blanket heaped on top of the dumpster. He stayed in there to do most of his planning and storing, of course, but otherwise stayed in the streets or the warehouse.

He stormed toward the warehouse, angry with himself and at Tucker for telling him he wasn't to blame _at all._ Sam was waiting for him by the door. "Danny!" she called. "I need to change your bandage and check up on your wounds."

Danny huffed. He was mad at Sam now, too. In fact, every other person who had spoken to him that night had made him angry. He just wanted to be left alone. "Don't waste your bandages on me, Sam," Danny said, shoving past her to get in the warehouse. "Just replace them after you check. Then leave me alone." He sat down on the matress and glared up at his friend.

"Somebody's grumpy," Sam said, bringing her stuff over to Danny and sitting down next to him.

"Everything is making me angry tonight!" the boy exclaimed, exasperated. "I just want to be by myself for once."

Sam started to unwrap the bandages from her friend's face. "Then I'll just let the others know you're unavailable," she said.

"Thanks," Danny said quietly.

Sam grimaced about halfway through with removing the bandages. "Danny, this scar..." She shook her head and continued to unwrap the strips.

Danny's stomach twisted. What did his face look like? He imagined his face with a particularly gruesome red-and-brown mark down the right side of his face, edged with inflamed, scarlet skin. His breakfast threatened to repay him a visit. "It's ugly, isn't it?" he croaked.

"_Beyond_ ugly," Sam replied. "Best we can do is clean it again and apply _fresh_ bandaging." She glared at him on "fresh".

Danny rolled his eye. "Fine. Whatever. But can I _open my eye?"_

"You could try, but there's a crusty, film-thin scab forming there. It'll be hard. Not as painful, though. The swelling's sort of gone down."

"Clean it first, please," Danny ordered, half-sighing. Sam wet a clean cloth and began to clean the wound. "Check your wounds yet?" asked the boy, eying Sam's shoulder.

"No, not yet," the girl said, wiping around Danny's eye in tiny circular patterns.

"Stubborn Sam. Why don't you?"

"Because you come first."

"Why me?"

"You're the _head_ leader," Sam groaned. "How many times must I say that?"

"As long as it takes," Danny replied.

"Calling _me_ stubborn," Sam said with a smirk. They both chuckled softly.

"I think this is the first time we've had a laugh together in a while," Danny noted.

"Yeah, I suppose it is," Sam replied. she finished cleaning and reapplying bandages to her friend's wounds.

"We need a more thought-through plan to get my parents back this time," Danny said. "We need to build a better mouse trap. I was thinking... maybe Carpathan isn't holding them in his mansion after all."

Sam nodded. "Go on."

"I don't know _where_ they're being held, but I have a plan to find out. I'm going to follow the peacekeeper van away from FentonWorks when it leaves tomorrow, find out where they are, and find an entrance from there."

"Alone?"

Danny's eyes flashed. "_Yes!_ Alone," he snapped. "I can't let anyone else die because of _me!"_ He took deep breaths and lowered his voice. "We're still trying to find that girl, Ginger. There are teams out looking for her now. That's dangerous enough. The safest place anyone can be right now is in an alley or in here."

"Let's go back to your alley together if it's that dangerous," Sam said, standing up. "I usually sleep in here, but those boys snore _loud."_ She smiled.

Danny stood up as well. "That'd be nice. Thanks." He smiled back at her.

The teens left the warehouse and silently began to walk back to Danny's alley. The sky was now a very dark shade of blue- almost black. Almost as dark as Danny's outlook on this life of war and death he had helped create. Not even a single star shone in that dark sky.

"I was hoping the stars would be out _earlier_ tonight," Danny said. "I watch them when I go to sleep. They give me peace..."

"From nightmares?" Sam finished.

Danny hesitated. "Y- Yeah," he stuttered, voice cracking. He shook his head and sighed. "But it's so dark tonight already. And there are storm clouds moving in..."

The two turned into Danny's alley. The boy crawled up onto his dumpster and laid back on his blanket. He started to mess with his sword.

"Then I'm glad I'm staying with you tonight," Sam said, leaning up against the dumpster and sitting down.

Danny smiled and shut his eyes. "Me too."

,.~*~.,

The sky was black and starless. Thunder rumbled as the oncoming storm began to roll in. The ghost floated above the large warehouse, invisible. The Fighters appeared to have turned in for the night. The ghost floated down closer to the building and peeked in through an old, broken window.

There were sleeping teenagers inside the warehouse; supplies, water, and foodstuffs as well. They were unlikely to see or hear anything the ghost might do. He phased into the warehouse and floated around it for a while. He counted six Fighters- four boys and two girls- and estimated that the food and water would last one person for at least two weeks.

He would have preferred the warehouse to be empty, but killing off six more of Carpathan's enemies would make the mayor very happy. The ghost phased back out through the roof and looked down on the building once more. He charged a glowing purple ball in his palm. Then, without hesitation, he threw it down.

,.~*~.,

It was the sound that woke him up. Not his nightmare, not even the disgusting smoky smell reeking slightly of metal that filled his nostrils. It was the loud boom, not the large flash of light that came with it, nor the screams.

Danny bolted up and jumped down from the dumpster he had been sleeping on. "Noooooo!" he screamed, running from the alley. Something terrible had just happened. He ran toward the screaming and the purple blaze, sword gripped tightly in his hand. If there was some idiot blowing up his team's home, which he knew had probably happened, he felt completely willing to slice him or her to bits. _Nobody_ was going to get away with putting his team in that kind of danger.

Danny stopped in front of the blazing purple fire, too angry to wonder why the flames were such a color. Despite the metallic smell and the smoke, there was also the overwhelming stench of burning flesh. The ugly truth was that there were people in that warehouse when it burst into flames.

"Show yourself!" Danny snarled, pointing his sword in every direction, half-expecting the arsonist to show up and get himself killed. But nobody showed up. The adrenaline began to wear off and reality took over. The blade fell from the boy's hand, as his arm no longer held the strength to bear it. His posture drooped. His knees shook and buckled beneath him as the tears began to fall. With his receding energy levels came the expanse of the emptiness in his fragile, angry heart once more.

"I've failed again," he muttered to himself. "No, no... not again..."

Sam came up from behind him, panting. "Who did this?" she hissed.

"I don't know," Danny muttered. "I should have died in there with them..." He began to raise his voice, slowly rising to his feet. "My own alley, another _perfect_ example of my _selfishness!_ I let them die again!" Now he was shouting so loudly that his voice was hoarse and gritty. "Tell me I should have died in that fire!" he screamed, staring at Sam with a manic look in his eye.

"No," Sam said strongly. "You should _never_ die meaninglessly in a fire! You want to know what you should do with that fire? You should take it and use it to make yourself _stronger,_ not decide you should have died in it!"

Danny backed off at her tone, mouth agape. Lightning lit up her face and amplified her rage. She continued, "Your death wouldn't have protected them, so what's the point? Just one more person dies! And since you're the leader, your death would just make everything we've strived for _fall apart!"_

"Sam, I-"

"Do you _understand_?" her face was inches from Danny's, her violet eyes burning like the fire.

"I know, I understand now!" he snapped, backing off further. He took deep breaths and shut his eye. Thunder rolled as the first raindrops of the storm began to fall. "Let's see if we can get everyone together again," he breathed. "We have to know who died tonight." He picked up his sword and walked away.

,.~*~.,

The rain from the storm had put out most of the strange purple flames. The only remnants of the fire were a few flickering flames and the blackened metal shell of the warehouse. The glass from the windows was shattered and scorched, and a giant hole was in the roof. It was useless as a safehouse now. No supplies or food was salvageable. Sam had had the sense to carry her bandaging supplies to Danny's alley, but she had no water ready to clean wounds now.

Water bottles that were not in the warehouse at the time of the fire were open and filling up with rainwater as it fell like a blessing from the sky. Danny himself caught the blessed raindrops in his cupped hands. Once he had caught enough, he greedily drank it down to sooth his parched throat. It was the most water all of the Fighters had seen in a very long time.

Danny had decided that, despite the death of several Fighters and the loss of food and supplies, the good had overcome the bad in this situation. Once again he felt completely confident his team could defeat Carpathan.

_I will go through with my plan tomorrow,_ the teen thought to himself. _I won't fail this time._ He clenched his fist. _For Mom, Dad, Jazz, Michael, Cam, and Ginger... I'm not going to fail._

He would ahve to tell the Freedom Fighters about his parents before the actual mission took place, but his own quest would precede that. His plans were finally coming together for what seemed to be a brighter future. This made him smile.

,.~*~.,

**Finally done typing this chapter! ^^ I promised this week and this week it is. Now what makes these author's notes special is this:**

**I'M DECIDING TO HAVE A FRONTLINES ART CONTEST! READ BELOW FOR RULES!**

**So yeah. I'm having an art contest that will end on, let's say, the day I post chapter 8! XD No definitives, but that's probably gonna be sometime in July, so I'd like all entries in sometime in July.**

**RULES: Pick your favorite scene in Frontlines and draw it. Simple enough, eh? Winners will recieve an exclusive sneak peek at Chapter 9 and an exclusive sneak peek at my unpublished story, War Games! My DeviantART name is PoisonIVy10, so be sure to look there for art surrounding Frontlines and other stories of mine. :3 I may come up with other prizes later that will be posted in a DA journal. Watch me if you dare XD**

**I would be really happy if you entered! ^^ And happy if you reviewed this chapter! Be warned: Chapter 8 is next...**


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